MIT refuses to accept White House terms for funding, other schools still mulling

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MIT refuses to accept White House terms for funding, other schools still mulling reut.rs/471tkNZ

— Reuters (@reuters.com) 2025-10-10T21:35:13.888Z

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/mit-refuses-accept-white-house-terms-funding-other-schools-still-mulling-2025-10-10/

Oct 10 (Reuters) - Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth on Friday said she "cannot support" a memo that the White House sent to nine elite U.S. universities last week detailing policies they should follow to get preferential consideration for federal funding.

In an open letter to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Kornbluth said some of the policies would restrict MIT's independence and freedom of expression

"The premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone," Kornbluth said in her letter, which was posted to an MIT website.

Some of the policies included in the memo were capping international undergraduate enrollment at 15%, banning the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions and defining genders based on biology. Schools that pursue "models and values" beyond those outlined in the memo could "forgo federal benefits," the memo reads, while institutions that comply could be rewarded.

MIT was the first university to refuse to support the White House memo, which followed Republican President Donald Trump's efforts to use financial pressure to force some of the country's top institutions of higher learning to submit to unprecedented control over who and what they teach.