U.S: UPenn, Brown and USC join MIT in rejecting government terms for access to federal funding

Three more major U.S. universities have announced they will not sign up to the Trump administration's Compact in return for federal funding. Christina H. Paxson, President of Brown University, said on 15/10/2025 that Brown University would not agree to the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. She was joined by J. Larry Jameson, President of the University of Pennsylvania, and Beong-Soo Kim, Interim President of the University of Southern California, who said on 16/10/2025 that their institutions have declined to join the Compact.

They are the second, third and fourth universities, after MIT on 10/10, to reject the Compact which conditions access to federal funds in exchange for agreeing to certain demands. These include:
• applying merit-based hiring and recruitment only and gender-segregation for bathrooms, locker rooms and sports based on reproductive and biological criteria;
• capping foreign enrollment at 15% of the student population and each foreign country at 5%;
• screen out students who demonstrate hostility to the United States, its allies, or its values, and…