\n<\/p>\n
Any California universities that sign the Trump administration\u2019s proposed \u201cCompact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education\u201d will \u201cinstantly\u201d lose their state funding, California governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration on Wednesday offered nine prominent universities, including the University of Southern California, the chance to sign a \u201ccompact\u201d that asks the universities to close academic departments that \u201cpurposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas\u201d, limit the proportion of international undergraduate students to 15% , accept the administration\u2019s definition of gender and ban the consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions, in exchange for \u201csubstantial and meaningful federal grants\u201d.<\/p>\n
Newsom\u2019s office described the offer as \u201cnothing short of a hostile takeover of America\u2019s universities\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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,\u201d the governor\u2019s office said in a statement. \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf any California University signs this radical agreement, they\u2019ll lose billions in state funding \u2013 including Cal Grants \u2013 instantly. California will not bankroll schools that sell out their students, professors, researchers, and surrender academic freedom,\u201d Newsom said in the statement. Cal Grants is the state\u2019s $2.8bn student financial aid program.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s proposed \u201ccompact\u201d was offered to schools that were seen by Trump as \u201cgood actors\u201d, 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\u2019s view, \u201creformer[s]\u201d who have \u201creally indicated they are committed to a higher-quality education\u201d.<\/p>\n
The \u201ccompact\u201d 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\u2019s 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 \u201cgrade inflation\u201d, an increase in the proportion of students receiving top marks in their classes, the Wall Street Journal reported.<\/p>\n
The University of Southern California is a private research university with an $8.2bn endowment. Putting academic freedom aside, some of Trump\u2019s proposals would be economically challenging for the school, the Los Angeles Times reported.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s compact not only limits international student enrollment to 15% of students, but also requires that no more than 5% come from any one country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are reviewing the Administration\u2019s letter,\u201d USC said in a statement in response to questions about Trump\u2019s compact. The university did not immediately comment on Newsom\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Any California universities that sign the Trump administration\u2019s proposed \u201cCompact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education\u201d will \u201cinstantly\u201d 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 \u201ccompact\u201d that asks the universities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[667,3113,10497,304,116,15400,81,489,2543],"class_list":{"0":"post-25494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-cave","10":"tag-compact","11":"tag-cut","12":"tag-funding","13":"tag-instantly","14":"tag-trump","15":"tag-universities","16":"tag-vows"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}