California Governor Gavin Newsom continues his public spat with President Trump by threatening state funding loss for California universities that sign an academic agreement with the White House.
The agreement, authored by the US Department of Education, is titled “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” It was sent to nine American universities, the only California school being the University of Southern California. If universities sign, federal funding will be prioritized for them.
In a statement issued in a release Thursday, which was satirical of Trump’s social media tone, Newsom warned California universities the consequences they will face if they “sell out” and sign the compact.
“IF ANY CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY SIGNS THIS RADICAL AGREEMENT, THEY’LL LOSE BILLIONS IN STATE FUNDING — INCLUDING CAL GRANTS — INSTANTLY. CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM,” Newsom officially stated.
A White House official told CBS News that the agreement was “sent on Wednesday to the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Texas, University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University.”
The compact specifically provides direction in the areas of admissions equality, marketplace of ideas and civil discourse, non-discrimination in hiring, institutional neutrality (sociopolitical), student learning and equality, financial responsibility, and foreign entanglements.
One notable provision in the agreement is that universities signing it must re-establish their “governance structures” and abolish “institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”
Newsom’s press office further claimed that the agreement “would impose strict government-mandated definitions of academic terms, erase diversity, and rip control away from campus leaders to install government-mandated conservative ideology in its place. It even dictates how schools must spend their own endowments. Any institution that resists could be hit with crushing fines or stripped of federal research funding.”
