Newsom urges USC to do 'right thing,' resist Trump deal

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday waded further into the controversy surrounding a higher education compact President Trump has presented to nine universities including USC, chiding campus leadership to "do the right thing" and reject the offer.

- DANIEL MILLER, MELODY GUTIERREZ AND JAWEED KALEEM

PRESIDENT Trump is asking USC to make policy shifts to get priority funding.

The compact, sent Wednesday to the University of Southern California and other campuses nationwide, has roiled higher education with its demands for rightward campus policy shifts in exchange for priority federal funding.

On Thursday, Newsom swung back at the Trump proposal and threatened to cut “billions” of dollars in state funding to any California university that agrees to it.

Newsom offered fiery remarks during a bill signing at UC Berkeley on Friday, escalating the stakes in the high-pressure decision confronting USC.

"Do the right thing," he said. "What's the point of the system? What's the point of the university? What's the point of all of this if we don't have academic freedom? ...

It's not a choice, and the fact that I felt I needed to even send that message is rather shocking, people think it is." because some Newsom scoffed at the notion that USC, a private institution, even has to deliberate over the Trump offer calling it a "false choice."

The compact's conservative goals

The White House offer to USC and a small group of prominent universities among them the University of Arizona, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas and Brown University - calls on campuses to follow Trump's views on admissions, diversity and free speech, among other areas. In exchange, they would get more favorable access to federal research grants and additional funding, as well as other benefits.