USC declines Trump compact

USC declined to sign the Trump administration’s offer of preferential funding in exchange for conservative policy reforms, interim President Beong-Soo Kim said in a message to the school Thursday.

Kim wrote in a letter to the White House that while the so-called compact raises issues “worthy of a broader national conversation,” USC decision-makers worried it would undermine the school’s independence over time.

“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.

USC is now the fourth school to decline the offer after MIT, Brown University, and the University of Pennsylvania similarly turned down the request earlier this week.

A USC rally planned for Friday that was originally billed as an anti-compact protest is still on, organizers said.

“Tomorrow's action will be a celebration of our efforts and a rally for keeping the energy going to defend academic freedom,” they wrote. “The struggle isn't over.”

Tomo Chien can be reached at [email protected].