The USC Graduate Student Government (GSG) urged the university to reject the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education in a letter addressed to Interim President Beong-Soo Kim and other administration officials on Tuesday.
“We call on USC’s leadership to stand firm alongside other institutions, explore legal and financial options to protect our community, and defend the principles that make our university a place of learning and innovation,” GSG leaders wrote in the letter.
USC is among eight other universities to receive this compact proposal from the federal government. In exchange for federal funding, the compact requires universities to change their policies on international student admission, diversity and ideology, and tuition, among other demands.
MIT and Brown University rejected the compact, but USC is still considering it.
“We’re a community that’s usually leading with courage, compassion, purpose and all [USC] values, and so the USC mission is also at stake here,” said GSG president Janielle Cuala.
USC is home to the most international students in California and graduate students constitute more than half of the total student population.
“Just seeing the type of morale that graduate students are expressing right now is already a sense of disheartening and kind of feeling confused about how they could play a role in their academic position right now,” said Natasha Wasim, vice president of advocacy for GSG. “Long-term, the compact could have an impact on outcome within graduate student enrollment, just feeling like, ‘Do I want to choose a university that signed on to something like this?’”
Many graduate and international students depend on financial aid, teaching assistantships connected to grants, and visas — all of which the compact could jeopardize, the letter explained.
The Graduate Student Government shared an overview of the compact and the implications of the White House’s demands in the open letter, as well as a testimony form for graduate students to express their views on the compact to be sent to Interim President Kim and the Board of Trustees.
Since GSG is paid for by graduate student contributions, Wasim explained, “the role we have in this is trying to reflect student voices.”
“We felt like it was part of our responsibility to speak up for our peers,” Cuala added.
The Undergraduate Student Government met with Interim President Kim on Tuesday to discuss the results of an undergraduate student government survey, which found that 92.7% of students oppose the compact.
USC has until October 20 to respond to the Department of Education’s proposal and must decide whether it will accept or reject the compact by November 21.
The administration agreed to meet with GSG to talk about where the university stands, Cuala explained. GSG leaders hope to present responses from the testimony form to the administration.
“I can bring actual stories and voices of these grad students that are affected and show them that it says the majority of the student population that feels this way,” Cuala said.
Other groups on campus are organizing in response to the compact.
The USC American Association of University Professors is collecting signatures from the USC community in a petition asking the administration to refuse to sign the compact.
On Friday, the USC Faculty for Justice in Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine and South Central Against Labor Exploitation are hosting a “Stop the Compact” rally and teach-in at 11 a.m. at Tommy Trojan.