On one of my posts, someone replied with a very thoughtful point that perhaps the university should be allowed to make its agreement. And this is a good point.
This is reminiscient of a longer discussion I'd like to have about the role of a university in society. At the end of the day, I think that there is a big gray area here. While the university is in some respects a private institution with its own ability to play by its own rules, it also receives public funding and thus has some degree of an obligation not to play by its own rules.
And I may even add that this option to defer is also something I hadn't considered, but has a lot of merit.
While I don't have the time to put an extended argument about my side on this right now, I'd like to acknowledge and respect this individual's point and mention that this would be an excellent topic of discussion should the university hold a forum on this.