The University of Southern California has rejected a controversial education compact offered to it and eight other schools by the Trump administration.
USC interim president Beong-Soo Kim said in a statement that he had sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education rejecting Trump’s proposal to prioritize funding for universities that agree to follow the president’s mostly conservative vision for higher education.
“I appreciate the variety of perspectives that many members of our community have shared with me. Although USC declines to join the proposed compact, we look forward to contributing our perspectives, insights and Trojan values to the important national conversation about the future of higher education,” King said in a statement.
The letter, which USC provided to The Times and was addressed to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, said the agreement “raises a number of issues that deserve further discussion in higher education and in our country.”
The letter said the university “fully agrees” with one part of the agreement that academic excellence requires “a vibrant marketplace of ideas where all diverse perspectives can be explored, debated and challenged.”
“To create such an environment at USC, we are committed to institutional neutrality and have launched a series of initiatives designed to foster civil dialogue across the ideological spectrum,” King wrote in a letter to McMahon on Thursday. “Without an environment in which students and faculty can freely debate a wide range of ideas and perspectives, we cannot produce excellent research, teach students to think critically, or instill the civic values our democracy needs to thrive.”
The deal, which has been rejected by MIT and Brown University, has disrupted higher education and drawn the ire of Gov. Gavin Newsom because it requires a rightward shift in campus policies in exchange for priority federal funding.
Newsom stepped in, challenging USC to “do the right thing” and rejecting the offer. He threatened to withhold state funding from any California university that agreed.
The agreement, submitted to USC on Oct. 1, requires the university to make a series of commitments consistent with Trump’s political agenda. Universities that agree to these terms will have easier access to federal research grants and additional funding, among other benefits.
The compact calls on universities to accept the government’s definition of gender — two genders, male and female — and prohibits them from recognizing the gender identity of transgender people. Enrollment of foreign students will be restricted. The agreement also provides for a five-year tuition freeze for U.S. students.
It requires colleges to require all undergraduate applicants to take the SAT or ACT and eliminate race, gender and other characteristics from admissions decisions.
As for free speech, under the agreement, schools must work to promote a broad range of views on campus and change or eliminate “institutional units that intentionally punish, demean or even incite violence against conservative ideas.”
The agreement was strongly rejected by USC’s Academic Senate, which met on Oct. 6 to hear from more than 20 professors, department chairs and others who spoke out against the document. During the virtual meeting, attendees delivered powerful speeches, calling the agreement “grossly ineffective,” “potentially unconstitutional,” “antithetical to the principles of academic freedom” and a “Trojan horse.”
