Reject

From Inside Higher Ed: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has rejected the Trump administration’s proposal to sign on to the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which would mandate sweeping changes across campus in exchange for preferential treatment on federal funding. MIT is the first of the nine universities invited to join the compact to publicly reject the proposal, which has ignited fierce pushback from other higher ed leaders, faculty and experts who see the document as a way to strip institutions of their autonomy...

MIT president Sally Kornbluth announced the move in a Friday morning letter to the campus community, which included a copy of her response to Education Secretary Linda McMahon. Kornbluth highlighted a number of areas the White House had emphasized in the compact, such as focusing on merit, keeping costs low for students and protecting free expression... She also noted that MIT disagreed with a number of the demands in the letter, arguing that it “would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution” and that “the premise of the document is inconsistent” with MIT’s belief that funding should be based on merit...

She was one of three presidents, including former leaders of Harvard University and Penn, who offered equivocating answers when asked about hypothetical calls for the genocide of Jews and whether that would violate institutional policies. Kornbluth, who is Jewish, was somewhat more direct with her answers and the only one of the three to keep her job following the hearing...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2025/10/10/mit-rejects-proposed-federal-compact.