MIT president rejects proposal tying funding to Trump’s political agenda

WASHINGTON — The president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Friday she “cannot support” a White House proposal that asks MIT and eight other universities to adopt President Donald Trump’s political agenda in exchange for favorable access to federal funding.

MIT is among the first to express forceful views either in favor of or against an agreement the White House billed as providing “multiple positive benefits,” including “substantial and meaningful federal grants.” Leaders of the University of Texas system said they were honored its flagship university in Austin was invited, but most other campuses have remained silent as they review the document.

In a letter to Trump administration officials, MIT President Sally Kornbluth said MIT disagrees with provisions of the proposal, including some that would limit free speech and the university’s independence. She said it’s inconsistent with MIT’s belief that scientific funding should be based on merit alone.

“Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education,” Kornbluth said in a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon and White House officials.

The higher education compact circulated last week requires universities to make a wide range of commitments in line with Trump’s political agenda on topics from admissions and women’s sports to free speech and student discipline. The universities were invited to provide “limited, targeted feedback” by Oct. 20 and make a decision no later than Nov. 21.

Others that received the 10-page proposal are: Vanderbilt, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, the University of Southern California, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia. It was not clear how the schools were selected or why.

Colleges have faced mounting pressure to reject the proposal

University leaders face immense pressure to reject the compact amid opposition from students, faculty, free speech advocates and higher education groups. Leaders of some other universities have called it extortion. The mayor and city council in Tucson, home of the University of Arizona, formally opposed the compact, calling it an “unacceptable act of federal interference.”

Even some conservatives have dismissed the compact as a bad approach. Frederick Hess, director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, called it “profoundly problematic” and said the government’s requests are “ungrounded in law.”

At the University of Virginia, officials invited campus feedback on the proposal this week. A message from university leaders said it would be “very difficult” to accept certain terms of the arrangement and said the decision will be guided by “principles of academic freedom and free inquiry.”

Democrats in the Virginia Senate threatened to cut the university’s funding if it signed the deal. In a letter to the university’s leaders on Tuesday, top Democrats called the compact a trap and said the state would not “subsidize an institution that has ceded its independence to federal political control.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, issued a similar ultimatum to USC last week.

At Brown, which already struck an agreement with the White House in July to resolve a series of investigations, university president Christina H. Paxson said Friday she is seeking campus input to decide how or whether to respond to the new proposal.

The compact marks a new tactic to seek reforms

In its letter to universities, the administration said the compact would strengthen and renew the “mutually beneficial relationship” between universities and the government. That bond faces unprecedented strain as the White House cuts billions of dollars in research funding from campuses it accuses of antisemitism and liberal bias.

The compact is a proactive attempt at reform even as the government continues enforcement through other means, the letter said. The nine universities were invited to become “initial signatories.”

Kornbluth’s letter did not explicitly decline the compact but suggested that its terms are unworkable. Still, she said MIT is already aligned with some of the values outlined in the deal, including prioritizing merit in admissions and making college more affordable.

Kornbluth said MIT was the first to reinstate requirements for standardized admissions tests after the COVID-19 pandemic and admits students based on their talent, ideas and hard work. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay nothing for tuition, she added.

“We freely choose these values because they’re right, and we live by them because they support our mission,” Kornbluth wrote.

As part of the compact, the White House asked universities to freeze tuition for U.S. students for five years. Those with endowments exceeding $2 million per undergraduate could not charge tuition at all for students pursuing “hard science” programs.

It asked colleges to require the SAT or ACT for all undergraduate applicants and to eliminate race, sex and other characteristics from admissions decisions. Schools that sign on would also have to accept the government’s binary definition of gender and apply it to campus bathrooms and sports teams.

Much of the compact centers on promoting conservative viewpoints. To make campuses a “vibrant marketplace of ideas” campuses would commit to taking steps including “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”

–By Collin Binkley/The Associated Press