MIT Rejects Trump Administration's Academic Funding Compact
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology rejected a White House proposal that tied preferential federal research funding to the adoption of conservative policy mandates.
The Trump administration issued the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education to nine elite universities, offering priority federal research grants and non-profit status in exchange for adopting conservative policy goals. The mandates include a five-year U.S. student tuition freeze, caps on international student enrollment, the adoption of biology-based definitions of sex for sports and bathrooms, and the abolition of campus units that belittle conservative ideas. The proposal also requires universities to audit faculty for a spectrum of viewpoints and make those assessments public.
On October 10, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology became the first institution to formally reject the compact. MIT President Sally Kornbluth informed Education Secretary Linda McMahon that the proposal would restrict institutional independence and argued that scientific funding must be based on merit alone. Other targeted institutions, including Brown University and Dartmouth College, have faced faculty protests and are seeking community input. Meanwhile, the University of Texas system expressed openness to the terms, and Harvard University is reportedly negotiating for research funds while seeking assurances against further demands.
Parallel to the compact, the administration targeted the University of California, Los Angeles, with $1.7 billion in potential fines and funding cuts over campus protests. Additionally, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. oversaw the revocation of NIH training grants from 24 California campuses. In response, California Governor Gavin Newsom threatened to withdraw state funding from any California-based institutions that sign the compact, while state lawmakers proposed a $23 billion bond measure to replace lost federal research funds.
