MIT has declined an offer from the Trump administration that would have given the university priority access to federal funding, citing concerns over academic independence and.
MIT has declined an offer from the Trump administration that would have given the university priority access to federal funding, citing concerns over academic independence and merit-based research funding. President Sally Kornbluth made the decision public in a letter released Friday, stressing that MIT values free expression and opposes any measures that would compromise institutional autonomy, reports the .
The Trump administration’s «Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education» was extended to nine universities, promising competitive advantages to those that agreed to a set of sweeping conditions. These included prohibiting consideration of gender, race, or political views in admissions and scholarships; freezing tuition for five years; enforcing a strict definition of gender; and requiring institutional neutrality on all levels.
