Topline:
USC has rejected the Trump administration’s offer for preference in federal funding in exchange for adopting more conservative policies. The administration’s 10-point memo, titled “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” called for commitments in a number of areas, including standardized testing and foreign student enrollment.
What campus leadership says: In a letter to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon, USC interim president Beong-Soo Kim said he “respectfully declines” the offer, adding that “even though the compact would be voluntary, tying research benefits to it would, over time, undermine the same values of free inquiry and academic excellence that the Compact seeks to promote.” In doing so, USC has aligned itself with at least three other schools that have rejected the same offer, including the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown University.
Department of Education response: The federal Department of Education said it couldn’t comment while employees were furloughed during the government shutdown.
Why it matters: The move likely won’t help USC’s finances. The school is facing a $200 million budget gap. The university says federal funding threats, higher costs and other issues have led to recent cost cutting, including hundreds of layoffs. Fundraising also has dropped in recent years, and a major sexual assault scandal cost the university more than $1 billion in payouts.
Faculty reaction: Kate Levin, associate professor of writing at USC, said the decision “was absolutely the right move.” The rejection, she added, is “the result of sustained pressure” from campus groups, including the school’s American Association of University Professors chapter and campus labor groups. “Everybody came together with a unified voice to say that this compact with the Trump administration would be a disaster on a number of levels. It would have been a disaster for academic freedom, for civil rights, for workplace rights, for the safety of our students. This is a major organizing victory for those of us who teach and study and work at USC,” she said.
Go deeper: USC orders cuts and hiring freezes in face of federal scrutiny, budget problems
