Trump's ultimatum to USC? It gets an F

Considering portions of the treatise aimed at academic excellence are plagiarized, it probably shouldn’t even be graded.

- 

THE TOMMY TROJAN statue at USC, one of nine universities offered the same laughable terms from the Trump administration.

(GARY CORONADO Los Angeles Times)

THE TRUMP administration’s recently released Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education has landed in the inboxes of nine universities, including our own University of Southern California.

Included in the proposed terms — which, if agreed to, are supposed to loosen the spigots of federal funding for academic collaborators — is a warning that units should not “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”

Threatening punishment and violence for contrary opinions is beyond the pale for any civic actor —a lesson that should be shared with Trump consigliere Stephen Miller, who recently labeled left-leaning advocacy groups and foundations part of a “vast domestic terror movement.” But the idea that one should not “belittle” seems a bit overheated coming from a set of political actors that have shared AI-generated memes of Democratic leaders of the Senate and the House adorned in sombreros and spouting fabricated quotes.

Plus, the compact itself invites more than a bit of skepticism. On Friday, MIT became the first of the nine universities to reject the terms, and it’s easy to understand why it would.

Consider the stern warnings against using race and gender in hiring and admissions. News alert: The use of race in both situations is already a settled matter for institutions taking federal dollars.