The Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday rejected the Trump administration’s proposed compact that offers priority for federal research funding in exchange for making sweeping policy changes.
MIT is the first institution to formally reject the compact, which the administration sent to nine research universities on Oct. 1.
The nine-page compact’s wide-ranging terms include freezing tuition for five years, capping international student enrollment to 15% of the institution’s undergraduate student body, and changing or eliminating units on campus that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”
MIT already meets or exceeds many of the proposed standards in the compact, university President Sally Kornbluth said in a Friday message to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon. However, the compact includes other principles that would restrict the university’s free expression and independence, Kornbluth said.
“And fundamentally,” Kornbluth added, “the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Kornbluth’s letter to the Trump administration
In her message, which she shared publicly, Kornbluth pointed to several MIT policies that she said were already in step with the compact. For instance, the proposed agreement dictates that colleges mandate standardized testing for applicants, and MIT reinstated its SAT and ACT requirement in 2022 after pausing it due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Similarly, Kornbluth noted that MIT limits international enrollment to about 10% of its undergraduate population — below the Trump administration’s proposed cap of 15%.
The compact also focuses on affordability, including through a standard that would require colleges with large endowments to not charge tuition to students enrolled in “hard science programs,” with exceptions for those from well-off families.
Kornbluth shared MIT’s own affordability initiatives, including not charging tuition to incoming undergraduate students from families earning under $200,000. She noted that 94% of undergraduate degrees awarded at MIT are in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.
But the MIT president opposed other compact provisions over concerns that they would restrict free expression at the university — which she underscored as a core MIT value.
“We must hear facts and opinions we don’t like — and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree,” Kornbluth wrote.
The compact’s terms have raised alarms from free speech advocates since becoming public.
Tyler Coward, lead counsel for government affairs at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said that the compact contains troubling language, pointing to the provision to eliminate departments that “belittle” or “spark violence” against conservative beliefs.
“Let’s be clear: Speech that offends or criticizes political views is not violence,” Coward wrote in an Oct. 2 statement. “Conflating words with violence undermines both free speech and efforts to combat real threats.”
Widespread opposition to the compact
The eight other colleges that received the compact are Brown University, Dartmouth College, the University of Arizona, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University.
The compact has drawn widespread opposition from employee groups and students.
Faculty senates at two institutions — the University of Arizona and UVA — have voted to oppose the agreement. It has also drawn campus protests and petitions to urge administrators to reject the proposal.
Democratic state lawmakers have likewise pushed colleges to reject the agreement.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to pull state funding from colleges that sign the deal. A pair of Pennsylvania lawmakers took a similar tack by moving to bar state-funded colleges from signing onto the compact. And in Virginia, leaders of the Democrat-controlled state Senate threatened funding consequences if UVA agreed to the compact.
“This is not a partnership,” the Virginia lawmakers said in an Oct. 7 letter to UVA leadership. “It is, as other university leaders have aptly described, political extortion.”
As of Friday afternoon, other university leaders had yet to publicly share whether they plan to agree to or reject its terms, though some of their statements allude to concerns with it. The Trump administration has demanded feedback on the proposed compact by Oct. 20 and a signature by Nov. 21
At Dartmouth College, President Sian Beilock said in an Oct. 3 statement that she would always guard the institution’s “fierce independence.”
“You have often heard me say that higher education is not perfect and that we can do better,” Beilock wrote in a message to the Dartmouth community. “At the same time, we will never compromise our academic freedom and our ability to govern ourselves.”
And Penn President J. Larry Jameson said the university “seeks no special consideration.”
“We strive to be supported based on the excellence of our work, our scholars and students, and the programs and services we provide to our neighbors and to the world,” Jameson wrote in an Oct. 5 statement.
However, he said he was seeking input from Penn stakeholders, including the trustee board, the faculty senate, deans and university leadership.
