WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will ban military members from Columbia, Yale, Brown and other universities starting next academic year in an effort to sever ties with an institution that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called a “factory of anti-American resentment.”
Hegseth announced the policy in a video posted on social media on Friday, three weeks after he said the military would cut ties with Harvard. Without citing evidence, Heggs said universities had become “breeding grounds for toxic indoctrination” that undermined military values.
“For decades, the Ivy League and similar institutions have been gobbling up trust funds of American taxpayer dollars, only to become factories of anti-American resentment and military contempt,” he said. “They have replaced the study of victory and pragmatic realism with propaganda of wokeness and weakness.”
Heggs said the ban applies to Columbia, Princeton, Brown, Yale, MIT and “many other universities,” without elaborating. He called for the “immediate and complete cancellation of all attendance at the War Department,” although it was unclear how broadly that would apply.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a message seeking more details.
As of Friday, Columbia University, Brown University, MIT and Harvard University were still listed in a Pentagon database as institutions eligible for the tuition assistance program, which covers the full tuition of active-duty personnel. According to the latest data, there are 39 participants at Harvard University, nine at Columbia University and two at MIT in 2023.
The earlier action against Harvard was aimed at preventing service members from participating in graduate-level professional military education, scholarships and certificate programs, according to a statement released at the time. Questions remain about whether it would apply to programs like Harvard’s Reserve Officers Training Corps program.
Harvard University offers a range of professional development programs and a handful of degree programs tailored to the Pentagon. Last year, it established a new master’s degree in public administration for active-duty service members and veterans. Hegseth earned a master’s degree from Harvard University but symbolically gave back his diploma during a 2022 Fox News appearance.
The military provides officers with various opportunities for postgraduate education, including at military-run war colleges and civilian institutions such as Harvard University.
Ivy League campuses have been a favorite target of President Donald Trump, who accuses them of being overrun by “woke” ideology. His administration has slashed billions of dollars in research funding and sought to impose a host of other sanctions on universities, often as part of investigations into allegations that officials tolerated anti-Semitism on campus.
Hegseth’s statement is a rebuke to universities that have appeared to have reached a truce with the government in recent months. Columbia University and Brown University were among the first universities to sign an agreement with the White House, agreeing to a series of demands to restore federal funding.
Harvard is fighting back against such demands, accusing the administration in a lawsuit of unlawful retaliation for the university’s rejection of its ideological views. Last summer, Trump said he was days away from reaching a deal with Harvard, but talks appeared to have broken down. Earlier this month, Trump said Harvard must pay the government $1 billion as part of any deal, double what he had previously requested.
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