{"id":44349,"date":"2025-10-03T12:23:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T19:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=44349"},"modified":"2025-10-03T12:25:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T19:25:57","slug":"newsom-threatens-state-funding-for-california-universities-that-agree-to-trump-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/10\/03\/newsom-threatens-state-funding-for-california-universities-that-agree-to-trump-demands\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsom threatens state funding for California universities that agree to Trump demands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The University of Southern California was the only California school that received a demand Thursday from the Trump administration that it agree to conservative policies in exchange for federal funding.Reed Saxon\/Associated Press<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Sophia Bollag<\/a>,Staff WriterUpdated\u00a0Oct 3, 2025 (SFChronicle.com)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SACRAMENTO \u2014 Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened Thursday to withhold state funding from California universities that agree to new policies proposed by President Donald Trump on transgender students, free speech, student discipline and other political issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an all caps statement designed to mimic Trump\u2019s social media posts, Newsom said California universities that sign what he called the \u201cRADICAL AGREEMENT\u201d will lose state funds, including those for scholarships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM,\u201d Newsom wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration proposed the framework<\/a>, and urged schools to sign on, in letters to nine of the nation\u2019s top schools Thursday. The University of Southern California in Los Angeles was the only California school on the initial list of schools that received the letters. Emily Gersema, a spokesperson for the university, said USC was reviewing the letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools that sign on to the pact would agree not to \u201cpunish\u201d or \u201cbelittle\u201d conservative ideas \u2014 a vague requirement that might violate the First Amendment. In exchange, they would receive federal funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letters represent the latest push by Trump to reshape higher education. His administration has launched investigations into alleged antisemitism at universities across the United States, including schools in the University of California and California State University systems. As part of those investigations, his administration has sought settlements with universities over findings by the administration of antisemitism, which include agreements that schools pay hundreds of millions of dollars and submit to more oversight and control by the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, the Trump administration has targeted UCLA in one of its investigations, attempting to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding over alleged antisemitism on campus. A federal judge ordered the administration<\/a> to restore billions to UCLA in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colleges and universities have become key targets of Trump\u2019s second-term agenda. Prominent conservatives often criticize higher education institutions in the U.S. as too liberal and say they are hostile to conservative ideas. Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed last month while speaking at a university in Utah, though\u00a0the\u00a0man charged with shooting him<\/a>\u00a0was not a student at the university and had reportedly dropped out of college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom has called the Trump administration\u2019s tactics extortion and urged schools not to sell out. As governor, he has limited ability to influence the conduct of the UC system, which operates independently of the government, but could target state funding for the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current state budget includes $45 billion in funding for colleges and universities. Nearly $3 billion of that total goes to Cal Grants, state-funded scholarships for California residents that Newsom specifically highlighted he would cut from schools that agree to Trump\u2019s demands. Those grants can fund tuition at private California universities, such as USC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The governor said he would terminate funding \u201cinstantly\u201d for schools that sign Trump\u2019s compact. State funding for universities flows through the state budget that Newsom signed into law over the summer. The next state budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year isn\u2019t due until June. California lawmakers could pass legislation making changes to the current budget before that, but that process typically takes months. State lawmakers are on recess and would need to be called back to Sacramento by the governor for a special session to pass any legislation before January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for Newsom, said the governor has \u201cmultiple mechanisms, including through the budget process\u201d to cut funding from universities, though he did not respond to questions about what mechanisms other than the budget he was referring to or how Newsom could cut funding instantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fully confident in our swift ability to take action should a university bend the knee to Trump,\u201d Gardon wrote in an email to the Chronicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oct 2, 2025|Updated Oct 3, 2025 8:34 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophia Bollag<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

POLITICS REPORTER, SACRAMENTO<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophia Bollag joined the San Francisco Chronicle as a politics reporter in 2022. She has covered state government from Sacramento since 2016 and has worked at The Sacramento Bee, The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times. She grew up in the East Bay and graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and literature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Southern California was the only California school that received a demand Thursday from the Trump administration that it agree to conservative policies in exchange for federal funding.Reed Saxon\/Associated Press By\u00a0Sophia Bollag,Staff WriterUpdated\u00a0Oct 3, 2025 (SFChronicle.com) SACRAMENTO \u2014 Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened Thursday to withhold state funding from California… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44349"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44354,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44349\/revisions\/44354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}