TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — U of A President Suresh Garimella will meet with the Arizona Board of Regents Friday to discuss a highly charged topic—the White House proposal for universities to make concessions in return for an inside track on Federal funding.
Garimella and the Regents will meet in closed, executive session at 4 p.m.
Executive sessions are closed to the public while government bodies discuss especially sensitive matters.
Board members can vote whether to disclose what they discussed and decided.
What the Administration calls its Compact on Higher Education asks universities to remove sex and ethnicity as criteria for admissions and hiring, forbid transgender people on sports teams, and forbid actions that would suppress conservative ideas. There are ten conditions in all.
U of A’s Faculty Senate and Student Government are urging the University President to reject the deal as a suppression of free speech and academic freedom.
U of A is among nine schools originally offered the deal.
So far MIT, Brown, University of Pennsylvania and USC have rejected the deal. The University of Texas has seemed open to the agreement but has not formally accepted it.
Schools are supposed to give the White House feedback on the plan by this Monday.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
