BY MIRABEL ODETA
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that the Pentagon will discontinue academic programs with Princeton University, Yale University, Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and several other institutions beginning with the 2026–2027 academic year.
In a four-minute video posted on the social media platform X, Hegseth sharply criticized elite universities, arguing that they have benefited for years from federal funding while fostering attitudes he described as hostile to American values and the military.
WATCH:
“For decades, the Ivy League and similar institutions have gorged themselves on a trust fund of American taxpayer dollars only to become factories of anti-American resentment and military disdain,” Hegseth said. He added that there should be what he called a “sacred trust” between the nation’s academic institutions and members of the armed forces, but contended that such trust has eroded within the military’s professional education system.
According to Hegseth, the problem extends beyond isolated programs and reflects what he characterized as a broader cultural shift within higher education. He accused certain universities of misusing their access to the Defense Department and straying from what he described as their responsibility to support national security and military preparedness.
The decision follows a Feb. 6 announcement in which Hegseth said the Pentagon would cut ties with Harvard University. The broader move affects a range of senior service institution programs, including graduate-level coursework, fellowships, and certificate offerings that allow military personnel to study at civilian universities as part of their professional development. Hegseth previously stated that service members currently enrolled in affected programs will be permitted to complete their studies.
In addition to ending partnerships with several civilian universities, Hegseth said the federal government’s own service academies—including the United States Military Academy at West Point, the United States Naval Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, and the United States Coast Guard Academy—will undergo comprehensive reviews. He said the reviews would examine curricula and institutional practices “top to bottom” to address concerns about what he described as ideological “indoctrination.”
“We’re going to hold ourselves accountable as well,” Hegseth said, indicating that the administration’s scrutiny would not be limited to outside institutions.
Hegseth himself is an alumnus of two of the universities affected by the policy. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and later completed a master’s degree at Harvard University. In recent years, he has been an outspoken critic of Harvard in particular, previously stating that he symbolically returned his diploma in protest of what he called the school’s left-leaning ideology.
On Feb. 27, he reiterated his position, saying the department would no longer support programs that, in his view, promote perspectives at odds with the military’s mission. “The Department of War is finished subsidizing the corruption of our own uniform class,” he said. “We’re done paying for the privilege of our enemies’ wicked ideologies to be taught to our future leaders.”
The shift comes amid ongoing debate over political ideology and viewpoint diversity within higher education during President Donald Trump’s second term. Trump has frequently criticized major universities for what he describes as the promotion of progressive viewpoints and has encouraged policies aimed at institutional neutrality, in which university administrations refrain from taking public stances on political or social issues.
A recent report by the Heterodox Academy examined political diversity among university faculty members and cited polling data from several institutions. According to surveys referenced in the report, 29 percent of Harvard faculty identified as very liberal, 34 percent as somewhat liberal, and 9 percent as somewhat conservative. A separate poll of Yale faculty cited in the report found that 66 percent identified as Democrats, while 1.8 percent identified as Republicans.
“The assertion that the academy leans left is overall supported by the data,” the report stated. “Nearly all studies in our review reveal a pronounced leftward lean among faculty, regardless of the faculty population, institutional focus, metric of political leaning, or data source.”
The Pentagon’s decision marks one of the most significant restructurings of its academic partnerships in recent years and signals a broader effort by the administration to reassess the relationship between federal institutions and elite universities.
Original article
Comments