President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sally Kornbluth, said on Friday (October 10) that “he cannot support” a white house proposal asking nine elite universities to adopt President Donald Trump’s political agenda.
Mit is one of the first universities to take a clear public attitude to the controversial plan offered by the administration as “more positive benefits”, including “essential and meaningful federal grants”.
In a letter addressed by the Minister of Education Linda McMahon and other White House officials, Kornbluth stated that MIT disagrees with the provisions of a proposal to reduce freedom of expression and endanger institutional independence.
“Therefore, with regard to this, we cannot support the proposed approach to solving problems facing higher education,” wrote Kornbluth.
A proposal bound to Trump’s political agenda
The ten-page “university compact”, which was spread last week, asks the University involved to accept the obligations associated with the political priorities of Trump’s administration-to cover topics such as admission, female sports, freedom of expression and discipline of students.
The universities were asked to provide a “limited, targeted feedback” by October 20 and make the final decision by November 21st.
Invited to participate include MIT, Vanderbilt, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, University of Southern California, University of Arizona, Brown University, University of Texas and University of Virginia.
It remains unclear how or why these specific institutions were selected.
Increasing pressure to reject a compact
The proposal caused extensive resistance from students, faculties and university groups who claim to be equal to federal overlap and political pressure.
Some of the university leaders went further and called the “blackmail” plan. In Tucson, the mayor and city council formally opposed compact and described it as a “unacceptable act of federal interference”.
Even some conservative voices expressed an alarm. Frederick Hess, Director of Education Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, called a compact “deeply problematic” and stated that its conditions are “underground in the law”.
At the University of Virginia, officials have recognized that it would be “very difficult” to accept the proposed conditions and promise to adhere to “principles of academic freedom and free investigation”.
Political back pressure from states
State leaders also entered Fray. The Democrats in the Virginia of the Senate threatened to reduce funding to the University of Virginia if they signed an agreement.
“The state will not subsidize an institution that has ceded its independence to federal political control,” Democratic leaders said on Tuesday.
In California, Governor Gavin Newsom released a similar warning to the USC, which indicated that state funds could be endangered if the university accepted the agreement.
Justification of Trump’s administration
Trump’s administration described compact as a way to “strengthen and restore mutually beneficial relationship” between universities and the federal government.
The letter noted that this relationship was tense cuts to finance the campus research in the middle of the accusation that some universities support “anti -Semitism and liberal bias”.
The administration described Compact as a “proactive attempt to reform” and urged nine schools to become “initial signatories”.
Mit emphasizes its own principles
Although Kornbluth’s letter stopped before a formal rejection, she clarified that the proposal conditions were “non -functional”.
She noted that MIT already includes some of the compact values, such as acceptance and availability based on merit.
“We choose these values freely because they are right and live with them because they support our mission,” Kornbluth wrote.
MIT was one of the first major universities to restore standardized test requirements after the Covid-19 pandemic and currently offers free tuition fees for families from families who earn below $ 200,000 a year.
What compact requires
The key conditions of the Trump administration proposal include:
-Fift -year -old freezing for us students.
-Tuition fees for students in “Hard Science” at universities with a foundation exceeding $ 2 million for higher education.
-The plays on SAT or Act for all applicants.
-Elimination of race, gender and other identity factors from admission decisions.
-Dopce government binary definition of gender for bathrooms and sports teams.
The compact also seeks to transform the campus culture by supporting conservative aspects. It calls for the transformation or abolition of “institutional units that deliberately punish, reduce and even cause violence against conservative ideas”.
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