HURRAH FOR M.I.T.—AND ITS PRESIDENT’S WORD COUNT! PART 1

VIMAL PATEL WRITES, “M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment,” The New York Times, October 10, 2025. 

Patel describes, “The proposal, called the ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,’ was sent to nine universities and would require colleges to cap international student enrollment, freeze tuition for five years, adhere to definitions of gender and prohibit anything that would ‘belittle’ conservative ideas.”

Image by Cody O’Loughlin for The New York Times.

Here in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow, we explore the meaning of these words (indeed, seemingly a plethora of them from a variety of sources).

Etymology: Extortion. Merriam-Webster defines “extortion” as “the act or practice of extorting especially money or other property; especially: the offense committed by an official engaging in such practice.” Furthermore, “extorting” is obtaining by force, intimidation, or undue or illegal power.

Yep; that nails it.

The Compact. “The Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” all 2843 words of it, is posted at washingtonexaminer.com. On October 1, 2025, nine universities were sent the document: Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, the University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University. Each was told to respond by October 20, 2025. 

Patel notes, “A White House spokeswoman, Liz Huston, said in a statement that ‘any university that refuses this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform higher education isn’t serving its students or their parents—they’re bowing to radical, left-wing bureaucrats.’ ”

Once again, an administration bureaucrat concocts a mirror-image complaint, this one of bowing. Talk about “belittling ideas”….

M.I.T.’s Response. Patel recounts, “In a letter on Friday to the Trump administration, M.I.T.’s president, Sally Kornbluth, wrote that the university has already freely met or exceeded many of the standards outlined in the proposal, but that she disagrees with other requirements it demands, including those that would restrict free expression. ‘Fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,’ Dr. Kornbluth wrote.”

Others. Wikipedia responses quickly with an (1867-word) entry on “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” It includes a statement from the Association of American Colleges and Universities rejecting the Compact, and declaring that university administrators “cannot bargain with the essential freedom of colleges and universities to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom.”

There’s also M.I.T. president Kornbluth’s complete response (a concise 490 words) to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon. After addressing several points, president Kornbluth writes, “In our view, America’s leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.”

In Part 2 tomorrow, we continue with reactions to Trump’s assaults on higher education, together with a respected law firm’s analyses of it all. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025