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MIT Becomes First University to Reject White House Campus Compact Tied to Federal Funding

MIT's rejection spotlights legal doubts over the White House funding-for-policy deal.

FILE - 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)
People walk through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge, Mass., on June 2, 2021.
People hold up signs during the Harvard Students for Freedom rally in support of international students at the Harvard University campus in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 27, 2025. Harvard students protested after the U.S. government said it intends to cancel all remaining financial contracts with the university, President Donald Trump's latest attempt to force the prestigious institution to submit to unprecedented...
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Overview

  • President Trump's administration offered nine universities preferential access to federal research grants in exchange for adopting a 10-point campus policy compact.
  • MIT President Sally Kornbluth said the proposal conflicts with academic freedom and the principle that scientific funding should be awarded on merit, noting MIT already meets many stated standards.
  • The compact demands include a five-year tuition freeze, reinstated standardized testing, bans on considering race or sex in admissions and hiring, a 15% cap on international undergraduates, and policies aligning with a binary government definition of gender.
  • Faculty senates at the University of Arizona and the University of Virginia have formally opposed the deal, while the University of Texas system welcomed engagement and other invited schools remain noncommittal.
  • Legal analysts, including Ropes & Gray, question the administration’s statutory authority and the scope of potential penalties, with feedback due Oct. 20 and a decision deadline of Nov. 21 as some state officials threaten countermeasures.