Colleges weigh whether to answer the Trump administration's higher-education questionnaire

In August, Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a letter to colleges nationwide requesting public responses to questions on topics ranging from affordability to ideological diversity, with a deadline at the end of the year. Florida’s 40 public institutions, including the Florida College System and State University System, promptly posted their answers, and the University of North Carolina’s 17 campuses followed suit.

Other schools, such as Colorado College, are debating whether participation risks federal retaliation despite no explicit funding threats. Faculty and administrators, including Vincent Rougeau of the College of the Holy Cross, argue that the demand creates an adversarial dynamic with the government. Legal scholars Amanda Shanor and Serena Mayeri have warned that the responses could be used against institutions, urging a coordinated refusal. The episode follows a previous “Compact for Academic Excellence” that tied compliance to research grants and was rejected by nine elite universities.