Any California universities that sign the Trump administration’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” will “instantly” lose their state funding, California governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
The Trump administration on Wednesday offered nine prominent universities, including the University of Southern California, the chance to sign a “compact” that asks the universities to close academic departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas”, limit the proportion of international undergraduate students to 15% , accept the administration’s definition of gender and ban the consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions, in exchange for “substantial and meaningful federal grants”.
Newsom’s office described the offer as “nothing short of a hostile takeover of America’s universities”.
“It would impose strict government-mandated definitions of academic terms, erase diversity, and rip control away from campus leaders to install government-mandated conservative ideology in its place,” the governor’s office said in a statement. “It even dictates how schools must spend their own endowments. Any institution that resists could be hit with crushing fines or stripped of federal research funding.”
“If any California University signs this radical agreement, they’ll lose billions in state funding – including Cal Grants – instantly. California will not bankroll schools that sell out their students, professors, researchers, and surrender academic freedom,” Newsom said in the statement. Cal Grants is the state’s $2.8bn student financial aid program.
Trump’s proposed “compact” was offered to schools that were seen by Trump as “good actors”, May Mailman, a senior White House adviser told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, with a president or a board who were, in the Trump administration’s view, “reformer[s]” who have “really indicated they are committed to a higher-quality education”.
The “compact” requires universities to eliminate departments that are seen as hostile or dismissive to conservatives, limit the proportion of international students on campus, accept the Trump administration’s definition of gender and restrict the political speech of employees, as well as freeze their tuition fees for five years. It also demands that universities crack down on “grade inflation”, an increase in the proportion of students receiving top marks in their classes, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The University of Southern California is a private research university with an $8.2bn endowment. Putting academic freedom aside, some of Trump’s proposals would be economically challenging for the school, the Los Angeles Times reported.
More than a quarter of the 2025 freshman class is made up of international students, the newspaper notes, with more than half of international students coming from China or India. The Trump administration’s compact not only limits international student enrollment to 15% of students, but also requires that no more than 5% come from any one country.
“We are reviewing the Administration’s letter,” USC said in a statement in response to questions about Trump’s compact. The university did not immediately comment on Newsom’s statement.
Most other US universities fall within the 15% cap, but about 120 exceed it, including USC, Columbia University, Emory University and Boston University, federal data shows.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
