USC rejects Trump education compact

Daniel Miller, Los Angeles Times on Oct 16, 2025

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LOS ANGELES — The University of Southern California had rejected the controversial education compact the Trump administration offered it and eight other schools.

USC interim President Beong-Soo Kim said in a statement that he had sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education turning down the Trump offer, which would give priority funding access to universities that agree to follow the president’s mostly conservative vision of higher education.

“I appreciate the various points of view shared with me by many members of our community. Although USC has declined to join the proposed Compact, we look forward to contributing our perspectives, insights, and Trojan values to an important national conversation about the future of higher education,” Kim said in a statement.

His letter, which USC provided to the Los Angeles Times, was addressed to Education Secretary Linda McMahon and said that the compact “raises a number of issues worthy of further discussion within both higher education and our nation.”

The compact had been strongly rejected by the USC Academic Senate, which on Oct. 6 met and heard from 20 professors, department heads and others who spoke out against the document. In forceful speeches during the virtual meeting, participants the compact “egregiously invalid,” “probably unconstitutional,” “antithetical to principles of academic freedom” and “a Trojan horse.”

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