The Pentagon will cancel all attendance for Department of Defense troops in graduate programs at Brown and other Ivy League institutions starting in the 2026–27 academic year, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced in a video on X on Friday.
“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.
The University will see cancellations for four military students, according to a Pentagon memo outlining the order.
In the video, Hegseth accused the Ivy League of “toxic indoctrination” and perpetuating “wokeness and weakness.”
“They’ve traded true intellectual rigor for radical dogma, sacrificing free expression for the suffocating confines of leftist ideology,” he added.
Hegseth earned degrees at both Princeton and Harvard.
The order cancels enrollment for a total of 93 military students across 22 institutions, according to the memo, and proposes 21 institutions as new potential partners for military education. The memo also outlines criteria met by the proposed partners, including “minimal relationships with adversaries” and “minimal public expressions in opposition of the Department.”
The canceled programs “no longer meet the Department's standards for rigor, realism, and mission relevance,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell wrote in a statement.
The order comes after Hegseth said the DOD would be ending its support of “graduate-level professional military education” as well as fellowship and certificate programs for troops at Harvard beginning in the 2026–27 academic year in a Feb. 6 video on X. He also announced a review of all graduate professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs for other Ivy League universities and private institutions.
The University did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This is a developing story. Check back for more updates.
Ian Ritter is a university news and science & research editor, covering graduate schools and students. He is a junior concentrating in chemistry. When he isn’t at The Herald or exploding lab experiments, you can find him playing the clarinet or watching the Mets.
