USC rejects the Trump Education Compact that aims to shift the university to the right
The University of Southern California on Thursday said it rejected the Education Compact Accuracy the Trump Administration offered along with eight other schools.
Interim President of USC Beong-soo Kim said in a statement that he had sent a letter to the US Department of Education issuing the universities that receive, they will give the study of money that is very important to the concept 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 own proposed ideas,” Kim said in a statement.
His letter, which USC presented to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and said the Compact “raises many issues that deserve further discussion throughout higher education and our nation.”
But, Kim wrote, the university had concerns about the President’s offer.
“We are concerned that although the compact will be a voluntary benefit, tying research benefits to it will, in the long run, create the same standards of free research and educational planning that you learn from,” Kim wrote. “Other countries whose governments do not have American governments in America with the commitment of freedom and democracy have shown how the academic performance can suffer when it moves the priorities of breeding the field of research away from free competition, Meritoral”. “
However, Kim’s letter said the university “fully agrees” with the Compact Excellence component that requires “an active marketplace of ideas where all different ideas can be evaluated,
“To foster such an environment at USC, we are committed to institutional neutrality and have established a number of initiatives designed to encourage open-minded discourse across ideological lines,” Kim said. “Without an environment where students and faculty can discuss a wide range of ideas and opinions, we could not produce outstanding research, teach our students to think critically, or instill the necessary values of democracy.”
The Compact — which has already been rejected by MIT and Brown — galvanizes higher education and draws Gov. Gavin Newloom and its prepared campus policy requirements.
Newlom was heavy on corruption, challenging USC to “do the right thing” and rejecting it. He threatened to withhold state funding from any California university that agreed.
Awarded to USC on Oct. 1, the compact requires universities to make a series of commitments in line with Trump’s political agenda. Universities that agree to the criteria will get better access to Federal research grants and additional money, as well as other benefits.
Coalition calls on universities to accept the government’s definition of gender – two genders, male and female – and bar colleges from recognizing the gender identity of transgender people. Enrollment of foreign students would be limited. The compact also defines a five-year tuition freeze for US students.
It asks colleges to require the SAT or ACT for all undergraduate applicants and to eliminate race, gender and other factors from admissions decisions.
As for free speech, schools would have to commit to promoting diverse views on campus — and change or eliminate “institutional institutions that purposely punish them,” according to the Compaqeni.
The compact was strongly rejected by the USC Academic Senate, which on Oct. 6 met and heard from 20-plus professors, department heads and others who spoke out against the document. In a strong tone during the virtual meeting, participants called the compact “interestingly invalid,” “Almost unconstitutional,”
