The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Friday became the first school to reject the Trump administration’s proposal offering preferential access to federal funds in exchange for agreeing to a set of demands. The controversial proposal was also sent to eight other elite universities.
Note: The Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, presented by the U.S. Department of Education, asked the schools to agree to a large set of conditions, which include capping international undergraduate student enrollment, and barring transgender people from using restrooms or playing in sports that align with their gender identities.
MIT President Sally Kornbluth responded to the compact and wrote to Trump’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon: “Fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”
The surest way to screw up the world’s best technical school is to let feds tell them how to run it.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 11, 2025
Congrats to my alma mater for turning down a bribe to let the executive branch dictate what happens on its campus.
A lot of things are wrong in 🇺🇸, but MIT is not one of them. https://t.co/gGUHeywo3S
U.S. Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY), who earned both a B.S. and an M.S. in engineering at MIT, responded by writing: “The surest way to screw up the world’s best technical school is to let feds tell them how to run it. Congrats to my alma mater for turning down a bribe to let the executive branch dictate what happens on its campus.”
The other eight schools that received the compact are Vanderbilt University, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia.
As seen below, about 200 students gathered at the Main Tower on Monday to protest the University of Texas’s consideration of the compact.
According to the Daily Texan: “Protesters urged the University to not sign, arguing the proposal threatens academic freedom, immigrant communities and safety of the transgender community.”
About 200 students gathered at the Main Tower on Monday to protest the University’s consideration of a compact proposed by the Trump administration, which would prioritize federal funding to universities for meeting certain requirements including international enrollment… pic.twitter.com/5KrtdCNAqZ
— The Daily Texan (@thedailytexan) October 14, 2025
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