UNDERSTANDING THE COMPACT

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EQUALITY IN ADMISSIONS

DEMAND: SAT or ACT would become mandatory

Standardized tests like the SAT or ACT would become mandatory in university admissions. According to U.S. News and World Report, 80% of colleges do not require students to submit scores for admission.

USC does not currently require students to take these tests, and only 44% of applicants in the 2025 cycle submitted scores, although the compact does make an exception for students in “specialized programs of study,” allowing different measures of accomplishment for music or art.

DEMAND: Cannot consider factors regarding diversity in admissions

The compact also declares that sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, political views, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious associations, or proxies for any of those factors cannot be considered in admissions.

USC’s current admissions policy claims it aims to create a “diverse class of students,” which may have been judged as using these factors for admissions.

DEMAND: Publicly report admissions data by race, ethnicity, and sex

The compact requires universities to report anonymized data for admitted and rejected students, including GPA, standardized test scores or other program-specific measures of accomplishments, by race, national origin and sex. This means already admitted data, like average GPA, would also be averaged for admitted women and men, among other categories, and reported publicly.

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MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS & CIVIL DISCOURSE

DEMAND: Protect “vibrant marketplace of ideas”

The second section of the compact states that universities must adopt a policy to protect academic freedom in classrooms, research and other spaces; however, it defines speech as non-discriminatory and threatening. This includes preventing the university community from disrupting libraries and study locations, heckling and harassment from demonstrators, and obstruction of parts of campus based on race or religion.

USC’s policy states that students are welcome to chant when protesting on campus with a valid license, but cannot raise their voices loud enough to interrupt university activities. As well, protests cannot “impede full access by other members of our community to USC’s campuses, buildings and grounds” and “disrupt or substantially interfere with university activities,” in line with the compact.

USC’s Policy on Free Speech states that “the legitimate expression of differing opinions and concerns, including unpopular, controversial or dissident viewpoints, is an essential element of the academic process. The imposition of opinions and concerns upon those who, in turn, dissent from them is not to be condoned and is inconsistent with a university’s process and function.”

It is unclear how the administration might enforce this section of the compact. During the height of Palestine protests on college campuses, Trump threatened to revoke funding from any university with “illegal protests,” but did not define what this meant. When rejecting the compact, Interim President Beong-Soo Kim wrote that he feared “it would, over time, undermine the same values of free inquiry.”

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NONDISCRIMINATION

DEMAND: Employee hiring is nondiscriminatory

This section of the compact applies to employee hiring and says that “no factor such as sex, ethnicity, race, national origin, disability, or religion shall be considered.” It also tells universities that exceptions can be made for the requirements of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act or other federal employment discrimination statutes.

USC’s policy already states, “All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or USC policy.”

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INSTITUTIONAL NEUTRALITY

DEMAND: University employees can not speak for the institution

This section outlines that university employees cannot speak or act on societal and political events in their capacity as university representatives, although they are encouraged to comment on events as individuals separate from the university.

This is already in line with USC’s policy, which states that “no one – including students, faculty, staff, non-university affiliated individuals, or other third-party organizations – speaks on behalf of the university or its leadership,” but “in both policy and practice, when USC faculty speak or write as citizens, they are free of institutional censorship or discipline.”

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STUDENT LEARNING

DEMAND: Report grade distributions and trendlines publicly

The compact asks for signatories to “commit to grade integrity… with each grade reflecting the quality, breadth, and depth of the student’s achievement.”

USC’s policy currently says, “The instructor’s evaluation of the performance of each individual student is the final basis for assigning grades. Students have protection through orderly procedures against prejudiced or capricious academic evaluation. The method of grading by instructors must be made clear to students, and instructors are required to justify disputed grades.

The compact also demands signatories to publicly report their grade distributions with trendlines, statements that explain trends and compare themselves to peer institutions. USC does not currently have publicly available data regarding student grades.

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STUDENT EQUALITY

DEMAND: Stop recognizing any gender not cisgender male and female

The compact would erase any recognized gender identity beyond “male,” “female,” “woman,” and “man,” which it says should be defined “according to reproductive function and biological processes.”

In the 2025 admissions cycle for USC, 1% of admitted students defined themselves as “other” rather than male or female. This does not account for transgender students who placed themselves in one of the binary categories. In the 2024-2025 USC Common Data Set, there were almost 300 undergraduate students whose gender was “other” or “unknown,” and over 200 graduate students.

DEMAND: Eliminate spaces that exclude classes of students

The compact says that “immutable characteristics, particularly race, do not permit unequal treatment, including in grading as well as access to buildings, spaces, scholarships, programming, and other university resources,” although it makes exceptions for women’s spaces, such as bathrooms and sports teams, on the basis of fairness and privacy.

USC has cultural lounges that are marketed to specific cultural groups, but any student has access to them if they wish. As well, there are scholarships based on race, such as the Latino Alumni Association and Black Alumni Association’s scholarships. These are open to any student of any race, but do require “commitment” to the cultural community they fall under. It is unclear if these spaces and scholarships, as well as other historical and cultural organizations, would be allowed to continue.

DEMAND: Discipline all students equally

The compact says signatories must commit to equality in the discipline of students, and “never favor or disfavor any person because of his or her membership in a racial, ethnic, national, or religious group, or a group based on sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity.”

USC’s policy says, “Any individual found responsible for engaging in Prohibited Conduct in violation of this Policy will face disciplinary sanctions,” with no mention of exceptions for marginalized classes.

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FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

DEMAND: Tuition would freeze, and drop-out students would be refunded

The compact requests universities to reduce administrative costs as far as reasonably possible. This includes freezing tuition rates for American students for five years, although there are no such protections for international students. Any student who dropped out after their first undergraduate semester would be refunded completely.

In the past, USC has adjusted tuition yearly to account for inflation. Its current tuition would have been frozen at $69,904, although the compact does not account for expenses like housing and dining plans.

DEMAND: Publicly report average earnings from their graduates

USC would also have to publicly post average earnings from graduates in each program. While some academic programs, like Viterbi, already do this, others, like Annenberg, report only what jobs their graduates ended up at, but not their salaries.

There is a stipulation that any university with an endowment over $2 million per undergraduate cannot charge tuition for hard science programs, but as of the most recent endowment estimates, USC does not reach this limit, and no change would be made.

DEMAND: Change military courses accepted for credit.

Universities would have to accept “full transfer credits” from the Joint Services Transcript for military service members. The Joint Services Transcript is accepted by 2,300 colleges in the United States.

USC allows most military courses, although they have some exceptions, including DD-214 and DD-295.

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FOREIGN ENTANGLEMENTS

DEMAND: Cap the international undergraduate student body population at 15%

The agreement would cap the population of undergraduate international students. It says that the reason for admitting international students is to “further America’s national interest” and to introduce admitted students to “American and Western values, ultimately increasing global understanding and appreciation for the United States and our way of life.”

In USC’s 2025 admissions cycle, 21% of the incoming class was international. However, the compact concerns itself with the total undergraduate population, which is currently only 13.1%, even with this high admission rate, according to the USC Common Data Set.

DEMAND: Cap the international population from each country at 5%

The compact says no one country can make up more than 5% of the undergraduate student body. It says that the reason for this is to avoid reducing spots available to American students and control national security risks, like incorporating “noxious values such as anti-Semitism and other anti-American values” when admitting students.

Chinese students are the most common international students at USC, currently making up 13% of the undergraduate and graduate student body, as USC does not delineate in its data reporting. India is the second largest, with under 5% of the total student population. USC would have had to enroll international students based on merit, not financial incentive, although this is already in their official policies.

DEMAND: Report information about international students when requested

Universities would also be required to share all known information about their international students with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State upon request, citing the USA PATRIOT Act, which expired in 2020.

Universities are required to provide information about international students to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, which maintains information about visas, sponsors, students, and dependents to enact “appropriate enforcement” like denial of admission or removal from the United States. Recently, Columbia University set a new precedent on reporting students’ arrests and disciplinary information, which was not common before this administration.

An announcement from the Office of International Services in May 2025 said that “international students are vital members of our Trojan Family” and directed students to resources where students could raise university-specific concerns in the wake of new federal policies and positions.

DEMAND: Follow anti-money laundering laws

The compact also states that universities must follow all applicable anti-money laundering and know your customer laws, to which USC and other universities are already subject. It requires the appointment of a compliance officer and the creation of guidelines and training to report “suspicious activity.”

USC already has an Office of Ethics and Compliance with these responsibilities.

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EXCEPTIONS

DEMAND: Religious and same-sex institutions may maintain preferences in admission

This allows same-sex and religious institutions to maintain their preferences in admission. No exception is mentioned for Historically Black Colleges and Universities or Hispanic-Serving Institutions.

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ENFORCEMENT

DEMAND: Report the campus community’s opinion of universities’ performance

Universities would be required to conduct a poll of the campus community on their performance in following the compact, with the results posted publicly on their website.