MIT refuses to accept White House terms for funding, other schools still mulling

[LetMyPeopleVote]

MIT refuses to accept White House terms for funding, other schools still mulling reut.rs/471tkNZ

— Reuters (@reuters.com) 2025-10-10T21:35:13.888Z

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/mit-refuses-accept-white-house-terms-funding-other-schools-still-mulling-2025-10-10/

Oct 10 (Reuters) - Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth on Friday said she "cannot support" a memo that the White House sent to nine elite U.S. universities last week detailing policies they should follow to get preferential consideration for federal funding.

In an open letter to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Kornbluth said some of the policies would restrict MIT's independence and freedom of expression

"The premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone," Kornbluth said in her letter, which was posted to an MIT website.

Some of the policies included in the memo were capping international undergraduate enrollment at 15%, banning the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions and defining genders based on biology. Schools that pursue "models and values" beyond those outlined in the memo could "forgo federal benefits," the memo reads, while institutions that comply could be rewarded.

MIT was the first university to refuse to support the White House memo, which followed Republican President Donald Trump's efforts to use financial pressure to force some of the country's top institutions of higher learning to submit to unprecedented control over who and what they teach.

[marble falls]

1. FINALLY! Resist!

[JT45242]

2. Ohio northern university got rid of DEI language but hired an African American female professor and getting attacked

They gutted the diversity department and changed its name. Did not even apply for an award for diverse admission to obey on advance.

Hired an African American woman professor for the law school and are now under attack.

University that cave will still get attacked if they don't only admit and hire white people, preferably straight Christian males.

[newdeal2]

3. This one probably hurts

Doesn’t Trump always boast about some uncle or something who taught at MIT.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Trump badgering and bullying one of the top rated universities in the world.

The smartest young people in the world attend this school.
Engineers, scientists, etc.
Top tier science and modern technology.
And Trump wants to destroy it.

I am glad they are pushing back.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. This made me smile

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. More big-name universities thumb their noses at Trump's 'extortion agreement'

trump's attempt to extort these universities is failing

More big-name universities thumb their noses at Trump's 'extortion agreement'

— #TuckFrump (@realtuckfrumper.bsky.social) 2025-10-16T23:57:20.000Z

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-college-2674207008/

Three more leading US universities have joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in rejecting President Donald Trump’s compact that critics have condemned as an “extortion agreement” and “loyalty oath” for federal funding.

Brown University’s Wednesday decision and Thursday announcements from the University of Southern California and the University of Pennsylvania came ahead of the Trump administration’s Oct. 20 deadline for the nine initially invited schools to respond to the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”

Although the University of Texas said it was “honored” to receive the offer, it has not officially signed on to the compact to receive priority access to federal funding and other “benefits.” Neither has any of the other institutions: the University of Arizona, Dartmouth College, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Virginia.

Bloomberg reported Monday that “a few days after MIT rebuffed the proposal, the administration extended the offering to all higher education institutions,” citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.

Brown’s president, Christina Paxson, released her full letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon and other Trump officials on Wednesday. She pointed out that “on July 30, Brown signed a voluntary resolution agreement with the government that advances a number of the high-level principles articulated in the compact, while maintaining core tenets of academic freedom and self-governance that have sustained the excellence of American higher education across generations.”