USC Thursday formally declined to sign a Trump administration compact sent to various universities calling on them to agree to series of conservative ideals in exchange for priority consideration in seeking federal funding.
"USC fully agrees that academic excellence cannot exist without a `vibrant marketplace of ideas where all different views can be explored, debated, and challenged,"' USC Interim President Beong-Soo Kim wrote in a letter sent to the U.S. Department of Education. "To foster such an environment at USC, we have committed ourselves to institutional neutrality and launched a number of initiatives designed to promote civil discourse across the ideological spectrum. Without an environment where students and faculty can freely debate a broad range of ideas and viewpoints, we could not produce outstanding research, teach our students to think critically, or instill the civic values needed for our democracy to flourish."
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He added that "we are concerned 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."
"Other countries whose governments lack America's commitment to freedom and democracy have shown how academic excellence can suffer when shifting external priorities tilt the research playing field away from free, meritocratic competition," Kim wrote.
The Trump administration sent the proposed "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" in early October to nine universities -- including USC -- calling on the institutions in part to adhere to restrictions on the use of race and gender in the admissions process, banning biological males from competing in women's sports, capping admission of international students and requiring a "vibrant marketplace of ideas" on campuses that ensures conservative concepts are not muffled.
Other universities that were sent the proposed compact were Vanderbilt University, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Texas at Austin, University of Arizona, Brown University and University of Virginia. MIT and Brown have both previously declined to sign the compact.
The compact did not expressly state that universities refusing to sign it would lose federal funding, but those that did would be given preferential treatment in competing for funds.
After the compacts were sent by the White House, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statement vowing to cut all state funding for any California university that signed it.
"If any California university signs this radical agreement, they'll lose billions in state funding -- including Cal Grants -- instantly," Newsom said. "California will not bankroll schools that sell out their students, professors, researchers and surrender academic freedom."
Newsom's office called the proposed compact a "hostile takeover of America's universities."
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