U.S. media reported on the 11th (local time) that the Donald Trump administration, which proposed a federal special grant to major universities while demanding they sign an agreement that includes a ban on considering race in admissions, was rejected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
According to Fox News and the New York Times (NYT), MIT President Sally Kornbluth said in a letter sent to the administration the previous day that she would refuse to sign the agreement, saying, "Financial support for scientific research must be based solely on scientific merit."
Earlier, the Trump administration sent letters to nine universities requesting signatures on the Agreement for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. The agreement includes provisions such as banning consideration of race or gender in admissions and hiring, capping the foreign undergraduate enrollment rate at 15%, requiring submission of SAT or equivalent test scores, and freezing tuition for five years.
In the letter, the Trump administration said that if universities sign the agreement, they will receive various benefits, including a substantial amount of federal funding.
The universities that received the letters are Dartmouth, the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Brown, Vanderbilt, the University of Arizona, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, and the University of Virginia—nine in total.
MIT is the first university to publicly refuse to sign the agreement. In a statement on the matter, White House Deputy Press Secretary Liz Huston said, "Universities that reject a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to innovate higher education are not serving students or parents; they are capitulating to radical left-wing bureaucrats."
The White House said it expects to receive responses from the universities by the 20th.
However, among universities, discontent is emerging that this amounts to political interference by the government in the academic domain and a measure that threatens the independence of higher education.
However, to avoid becoming a target of the administration, most universities are taking a vague stance for now, the NYT reported.
Since returning to power, President Trump has halted research funding for elite U.S. universities such as Harvard and Duke, while demanding the elimination of diversity policies on campus and the eradication of antisemitism.