USC asked to commit to Trump values to gain preference for grants. Newsom threatens state funding

The White House is asking nine elite universities including the University of Southern California to sign a compact with the Trump administration in exchange for favorable treatment.

The Associated Press obtained the compact on Thursday. It asks the universities to agree to the government's definition of gender, to exclude race and gender in college admissions decisions, limit the enrollment of international students, and cap tuition for U.S. students, among other demands.

The 10-page letter also takes aim at free speech policies on campuses, asking the schools to commit to "transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas."

Universities that sign the "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” will receive preferential access to federal grants, according to a White House official who spoke to AP.

California Governor Gavin Newsom responded Thursday, saying that any California university that signs a compact with the Trump administration will lose its state funding. 

"California will not bankroll schools that sell out their students, professors, researchers, and surrender academic freedom," Newsom said in a statement. 

A USC spokesperson said in a statement that the university was reviewing the administration's letter.

What happens if USC agrees to sign?

The move comes as universities face extraordinary pressure from the federal government. The Trump administration has threatened to pull federal funding at colleges and attacked schools for policies not in line with the government's agenda.

In Southern California, for instance, the federal government has asked UCLA to pay nearly $1.2 billion dollars to settle civil rights and antisemitism allegations in exchange for releasing nearly half a billion dollars in federal funding, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Blake Emerson, a law professor at UCLA, said that if USC and other universities agree to the letter, it could create a "snowball effect" where other institutions follow suit.

“They're trying to make sure that institutions adopt and teach views that are consistent with their political perspective," he said. "Those are the kinds of moves that make labels like authoritarianism apt and not alarmist."

The letter was sent to Brown University, Dartmouth College, the University of Arizona, the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas, the University of Virginia, and USC.

It’s not clear what an agreement would mean for USC’s various research centers and faculty who study race, equity and other topics that have drawn the ire of the administration.

Faculty members associated with USC’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors wrote a letter to university leadership Thursday, according to an email sent by the chapter reviewed by LAist. The letters said that the compact "represents a historic and dangerous change to the principles of academic freedom that have shaped American education and research over the past century."

Kelly Benjamin, the national spokesperson for that group, called the compact a "corrupt form of a loyalty oath."

"To have colleges and universities pledge allegiance in order to receive funding or fair treatment from the federal government is bonkers," Benjamin said. "This is a new era of thought policing by this administration in American higher education."