More unis join MIT in rejecting Trump’s preferential funding plan

Four out of nine universities invited to sign the agreement have declined deal

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Unlike the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (above) and Brown University, which rejected the plan in any form, it was not clear if the University of Pennsylvania and University of Southern California were open to a revised version. PHOTO: AFP

(PHOTO: AFP)

The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and University of Southern California (USC) each declined on Oct 16 to join the Trump administration’s proposal that links federal funding to restrictions on hiring, admissions and tuition.

USC interim president Kim Be-ong-soo said in a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon that the Los Angeles-based university shared many of the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education’s goals.

But he worried that its conditions could “undermine the same values of free inquiry and academic excellence that the compact seeks to promote”.

“Although USC respectfully declines to participate in the proposed compact, the issues and aspirations raised by it are worthy of a broader national conversation to which USC would be eager to contribute,’ Mr Kim said.