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MIT SAYS ‘NO’ TO TRUMP EXTORTION PACT  
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Jessica Corbett
October 10, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ "This offer looked like an invitation, but it wasn't," said Ariel
White, vice president of MIT's American Association of University
Professors chapter. "It was a ransom note." _

MIT President Sally Kornbluth addressing class of 2025, credit:
screen grab

 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday became the first
university to reject President Donald Trump’s “Compact for
Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which critics have called
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“extortion” agreement for federal funding.

MIT and eight other schools—the University of Arizona, Brown
University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the
University of Southern California, the University of Texas, Vanderbilt
University, and the University of Virginia—were invited to sign the
pledge earlier this month.

Sally Kornbluth, MIT’s president, met with US Education Secretary
Linda McMahon earlier this year and on Friday published
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the administration’s letter on the school’s website.

“The institute’s mission of service to the nation
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knowledge, educate students, and bring knowledge to bear on the
world’s great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of
values [[link removed]], with excellence above all,”
Kornbluth wrote. MIT “prides itself on rewarding merit” and
“opens its doors to the most talented students,” and “we value
free expression.”

Kornbluth continued

These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards
outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values
because they're right, and we live by them because they support our
mission—work of immense value
[[link removed]] to the
prosperity, competitiveness, health, and security of the United
States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.

The document also includes principles with which we disagree,
including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our
independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the
document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding
should be based on scientific merit alone.

In our view, America’s leadership in science and innovation depends
on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that
free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the
very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot
support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher
education.

“As you know, MIT’s record of service to the nation
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concluded. “Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a
scientific partnership between America’s research universities and
the US government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the
American people. We continue to believe in the power of this
partnership to serve the nation.”

The decision to reject the compact was praised by current members of
the university community, alumni
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others—including Amnesty International
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which said [[link removed]] on
social media: “We commend MIT in its decision to reject President
Trump’s proposed ‘compact.’ In refusing to cave to political
pressures, MIT has upheld the very ideals higher education is built
on—freedom of thought, expression, and discourse.”

“The federal government must not infringe on what students can read,
discuss, and learn in school,” the human rights group continued.
“It is a violation of their academic freedom. MIT did the right
thing: It put its students first and preserved the social fabric of
its university life. We hope other universities will follow suit.”

American Association of University Professors president Todd Wolfson
similarly said
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a statement to _The New York Times_ that “the ability to teach and
study freely is the bedrock of American higher education.”

“We applaud MIT for standing up for academic freedom and
institutional autonomy rejecting Trump’s ‘loyalty oath’
compact,” he added. “We urge all institutions targeted by the
administration’s bribery attempt to do the same.”

According to
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Globe_:

MIT faculty are "relieved" by the school's position, said Ariel
White, a political science professor and vice president of MIT's
American Association of University Professors chapter. But they
expect to see Trump employ his whole-of-government approach against
the university in response.

"This offer looked like an invitation, but it wasn't," she said. "It
was a ransom note. Now there is some risk that we will face reprisal."

What form that reprisal could take is not immediately clear. But White
House spokesperson Liz Huston said Friday that "any university that
refuses this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform higher
education isn't serving students or their parents—they’re bowing
to radical, left-wing bureaucrats."

"The truth is, the best science can't thrive in institutions that have
abandoned merit, free inquiry, and the pursuit of truth,” Huston's
statement continued. "President Trump encourages universities to join
us in restoring academic excellence and commonsense policies."

As _Common Dreams_ reported
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this week, campus activist groups at various schools are organizing
against Trump’s proposed compact, and the national legal
organization Democracy Forward launched an investigation into the
effort to strong-arm universities—which is part of a broader agenda
targeting any entities or individuals not aligned with the
administration.

Jessica Corbett [[link removed]]
is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

_Common Dreams [[link removed]] is a
reader-supported independent news outlet created in 1997 as a new
media model._

_Our nonprofit newsroom covers the most important news stories of the
moment. Common Dreams free online journalism keeps our millions of
readers well-informed, inspired, and engaged._

_We are optimists. We believe real change is possible. But only if
enough well-informed, well-intentioned—and just plain fed up and
fired-up—people demand it. We believe that together we can attain
our common dreams._

* Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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* universities
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* Donald Trump
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* Linda McMahon
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