The Trump administration may exclude USC and 37 other universities from the Diplomacy Lab, a program that provides students and faculty with hands-on experience tackling global policy challenges, because they “openly engage in DEI hiring practices” according to internal documents obtained by The Guardian. 

The University did not respond to a request for comment about the possible cuts to the research partnership with the State Department. 

This comes after USC rejected President Donald Trump’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which told universities to make changes such as committing to not factor race, sex, gender, ethnicity, national origin, disability or religion into the hiring process. 

In his Oct. 16 statement rejecting the compact, interim President Beong-Soo Kim wrote that the University “takes its legal obligations very seriously, including the laws prohibiting discrimination in admissions [and] hiring.”

The University’s Recruiting and Hiring Policy, issued in February 2019, states that it is committed to “securing and retaining a diverse and inclusive pool” of employees in “accordance with the principles of affirmative action and equal employment opportunity.”

The State Department selected the Viterbi School of Engineering as a partner institution of the Diplomacy Lab in 2019. The Diplomacy Lab offers students direct involvement in the policymaking process through exploring problems identified by the State Department and working to develop solutions.

Each semester, the State Department sends out a list of proposed projects to Diplomacy Lab members. From there, universities choose faculty members to lead students in research to address the problem, and after project-bid approval, teams work all semester to produce a product that achieves the goals set out by the department. 

Students who have participated in the Diplomacy Lab have gone on to obtain jobs in international relations, the government and the State Department, according to USC’s International Academy website. According to The Guardian, the State Department uses the program as a way to identify possible recruits. 

The suspension from the program would become effective in January 2026. Other institutions that could be removed from the program include Stanford University, Duke University, Yale University and Johns Hopkins University, according to The Guardian. 

If the suggested exclusions are made, the State Department would work with new partners such as Liberty University, Brigham Young University, and other schools in Missouri and Texas, according to The Guardian.