MIT president says she 'cannot support' proposal to adopt Trump
priorities for funding benefits
[October 11, 2025]
By COLLIN BINKLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.”
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Students walk past the "Great Dome" atop Building 10 on the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Mass,
April 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
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.”
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