5 of 9 universities reject Trump compact so far

That brings the tally to five rejections — Virginia, Penn, USC, Brown and Massachusetts Institute of Technology — among the nine universities initially asked to sign the compact. The president of a fifth, Dartmouth, has said she cannot support it but hasn't formally rejected it. 

The University of Arizona has not announced a decision. Its president, Suresh Garimella, is scheduled to meet late Friday with the Arizona Board of Regents in a session closed to the public to discuss the compact, but no actions are scheduled as part of that meeting. 

The compact suggests universities would receive priority access to federal funding in exchange for a wide variety of  ideological, financial and political commitments aligning with President Donald Trump's agenda. 

Penn's president, J. Larry Jameson, and USC's interim president, Beong-Soo Kim, told their university committees in separate announcements that they informed the White House they won't sign the compact, the Times reported.

"We are concerned that even though the compact would be voluntary, tying research benefits to it would, over time, undermine the same values of free inquiry and academic excellence that the compact seeks to promote," Kim wrote in a notice to USC's campus.

Jameson said he told White House officials that for Penn, the compact has areas of "existing alignment as well as substantive concerns."