Defense Secretary Bans Military from Attending Elite Universities Including Yale, Columbia

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced military personnel will be prohibited from attending several prestigious universities beginning next academic year. Hegseth claims these institutions have become centers of anti-American sentiment that conflict with military principles.

WASHINGTON — Military service members will be barred from enrolling at several elite universities beginning with the upcoming academic year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared in a social media announcement Friday.

The prohibition targets prestigious institutions including Yale, Columbia, Brown, Princeton, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which Hegseth characterized as centers that foster anti-American attitudes.

In his video statement, Hegseth claimed these academic institutions have transformed into environments that work against core military principles, though he provided no supporting evidence for his assertions.

“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,” he said. “They’ve replaced the study of victory and pragmatic realism with the promotion of wokeness and weakness.”

This latest announcement follows Hegseth’s decision three weeks earlier to sever military ties with Harvard University. He referenced “many others” in his ban but did not specify additional institutions affected by the policy.

Pentagon officials did not respond immediately to requests for clarification about the scope and implementation of these restrictions.

Pentagon records from Friday showed that Columbia, Brown, MIT and Harvard remained on the approved list for the military’s Tuition Assistance program, which provides full tuition coverage for active personnel. Recent data indicates Harvard enrolled 39 military participants in 2023, while Columbia had nine and MIT had two.

The Harvard restriction specifically targets graduate-level professional military education, fellowship opportunities, and certificate programs. Questions remain about whether programs like Harvard’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps will be affected.

Harvard has developed specialized programs for Pentagon personnel, including professional development courses and degree programs designed for military members. The university launched a new master’s program in public administration for active-duty service members and veterans last year. Notably, Hegseth himself holds a Harvard master’s degree, though he ceremonially returned his diploma during a 2022 Fox News broadcast.

Military officers typically receive graduate education opportunities through both military-operated war colleges and civilian academic institutions like Harvard.

These elite universities have become frequent targets of criticism from President Donald Trump’s administration, which alleges they promote excessive “woke” ideology. The administration has withdrawn billions in research funding and imposed various penalties on these institutions, often citing investigations into how campus officials handled antisemitism concerns.

Hegseth’s declaration represents a setback for universities that appeared to have found common ground with the administration recently. Both Columbia and Brown were among the first institutions to negotiate agreements with the White House, accepting various conditions to restore their federal funding.

Harvard has chosen to challenge these demands through legal action, filing lawsuits that claim the government is unlawfully punishing the university for rejecting its ideological positions. Trump indicated last summer that a deal with Harvard was imminent, but those discussions seem to have collapsed. Earlier this month, Trump increased his demands, stating Harvard must pay $1 billion to the government as part of any agreement, doubling his previous requirement.