EXCLUSIVE: A historically Black university in North Carolina has made history by being the first educational institution to show interest in joining President Donald Trump’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. This comes after several Ivy League and major state universities opted not to engage with the initiative.

Verjanis Peoples, the interim president of St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh, reached out to David Barker, the assistant secretary for postsecondary education under the Trump administration. Peoples, alongside Sophie Gibson, chair of the university’s board of trustees, penned a letter expressing their enthusiasm to be part of the compact. Fox News Digital has acquired this letter, which was forwarded to the Department of Education on Wednesday.

“On behalf of Saint Augustine’s University, we write to express our desire to participate in and help shape the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” the letter stated.

The university emphasized its historical significance as one of the nation’s oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities, boasting a 158-year legacy dedicated to broadening educational access and transforming lives. They voiced support for the Compact’s overarching goals of enhancing academic excellence, accountability, and transparency within American higher education.

An aerial view of the St. Augustine’s University campus in Raleigh, N.C. (St. Augustine’s University)

University officials noted their belief in the alignment between their mission and the Compact’s goals for excellence and accountability.

However, the letter lays out a few candid acknowledgments of some unique challenges an HBCU might have upon joining. 

President Donald Trump talks to guests after signing the HBCU executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., Feb. 28, 2017.  (Reuters/Yuri Gripas)

The compact, which is tied to preferential federal funding for universities that participate, explicitly bars consideration of race, ethnicity and other identity-based characteristics for admissions and scholarship decisions, an obvious potential hurdle for a historically Black school.

“For example, the Compact’s current restrictions on the use of race, ethnicity, or related indicators in admissions or financial support—while well intentioned—conflict with Title III of the Higher Education Act and with the explicit purpose of HBCUs to expand access for Black students and historically marginalized communities,” the letter says. 

The letter also notes that the compact’s tuition freeze, which says that schools joining the compact cannot raise tuition for five years after signing, could be a significant hurdle to clear given that HBCUs typically have smaller endowments than private schools and large state universities. 

An entrance to the St. Augustine’s University campus in Raleigh, N.C. (St. Augustine’s University)

Another concern for the school is whether the compact, which forbids DEI programs and caps foreign admissions to 15% of the student population, and 5% from any single nation, will be compatible with the compact, noting the school’s “global partnerships across the African diaspora,” which is part of longstanding HBCU tradition. 

The letter ends on a positive note, saying the school “remains eager to participate as a constructive partner and early-engagement institution.”

“We believe that with thoughtful collaboration, the Department and participating institutions can refine the Compact to ensure that its implementation is rigorous, mission-aligned, and inclusive of the Nation’s diverse higher education landscape,” it says. “Saint Augustine’s University respectfully requests a dialogue process that allows HBCUs to contribute expertise, articulate mission-specific constraints, and help shape the final framework in ways that uphold both the letter and spirit of the Compact while safeguarding our statutory purpose.”

A stone building on the campus of St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh, N.C.  (St. Augustine’s University)

“Our mission as a Historically Black College/University is not symbolic—it is statutory, purposeful, and essential to the students and communities we were created to serve,” Peoples said in a statement. “We fully support efforts to raise the bar on academic excellence nationwide, but those efforts must recognize the unique role HBCUs play in expanding opportunity. Saint Augustine’s University is eager to collaborate on a grant that is rigorous, mission-aligned, and reflective of America’s diverse higher education landscape.”

The Trump administration solicited feedback from nine schools, some public and some private, nationwide. A feedback deadline was set for Oct. 20. None of the colleges signed the compact, with MIT, the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California and the University of Virginia declining to participate.

Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas at Austin remain noncommittal on the proposal.

Read the full letter: