Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has escalated the administration’s “war on wokeness” by formalizing a Pentagon-wide divorce from several of the nation’s most prestigious universities. Citing a need to return the military to a culture of “lethality,” the Department of Defense (DOD) will no longer send active-duty service members to Columbia, Yale, Brown, Princeton, and MIT.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!1. The Core Mandate
The directive essentially creates a “no-go” list for military personnel seeking advanced degrees. Hegseth’s argument is that these institutions prioritize social engineering over strategic warfare, making them unsuitable for the development of future commanders.
- Target: Professional Military Education (PME), fellowships, and graduate-level certificates.
- The “Grandfather” Clause: Service members currently enrolled are protected and may finish their degrees, but no new “starts” will be authorized for the 2026–2027 cycle.
- The “Hegseth Doctrine”: The Secretary has labeled these schools “incubators of elitism” that are incompatible with the “gritty, meritocratic” nature of the armed forces.
2. Financial and Operational Impact
| Area of Impact | Consequence |
| Fellowships | High-level “War College” fellowships at schools like MIT and Columbia are effectively canceled. |
| Research | While the current order focuses on personnel, the administration is simultaneously reviewing billions in research grants for “ideological alignment.” |
| The ROTC Question | Uncertainty remains regarding the status of ROTC detachments on these campuses, though Hegseth has signaled a preference for moving these units to “land-grant” public universities. |
3. Historical Context: From Alumnus to Antagonist
The move is deeply personal for Hegseth. A graduate of both Princeton and Harvard, he has built a political identity around rejecting his “elite” pedigree. In 2022, he famously wrote “Decline and Fall” on his Harvard diploma in marker.
By cutting these ties, Hegseth is not just changing policy; he is attempting to fundamentally shift the intellectual center of gravity for the U.S. officer corps away from the Northeast “Power Corridor” and toward internal military academies and state-run institutions.
4. The University Response
The Ivy League’s reaction has been a mix of defiance and concern.
- Columbia University, which hosts the largest veteran population in the Ivy League, has emphasized its commitment to those who served.
- Critics of the move argue that isolating the military from the nation’s top research and policy institutions will lead to a “strategic vacuum” and a less-educated leadership tier.
