OPEN LETTER: MIT Campus Organizations Stand Against White House Compact to MIT
Open Letter to President Sally Kornbluth
On October 1, the Trump administration proposed a ten-point compact to nine universities, including MIT. This proposed compact demands that universities pledge loyalty to the Trump administration and implement numerous unprecedented policies in exchange for federal favor and preferential funding.
This compact fundamentally violates core principles of higher education and academic freedom. It would effectively enable unprecedented control by presidential administrations over admissions, research, and classroom discussion and opens the door to further targeting of our international workers and students; LGBTQ+ community members; and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs across campus. Accepting such a compact would effectively destroy the institutional culture of MIT as we know it.
MIT must stand in defense of our campus, academic freedom, and civil rights. Extensive engagement with this compact plays into the administration’s hands and opens the door to further government control of MIT as an institution. We, the undersigned, call on MIT to firmly refuse to negotiate or comply with these demands.
Signed,
Leaders of
DUSP for Palestinian Liberation
G@MIT
Generational African American Student Association
Latino Cultural Center
MIT Asian American Initiative
MIT Black Graduate Student Association
MIT Black Student Union
MIT Chapter of American Association of University Professors – Leads
MIT Chinese Students and Scholars Association
MIT Coalition for Palestine
MIT Divest
MIT Faculty & Staff for Palestine
MIT Grads for Palestine
MIT Graduate Student Council Executive Board – Members Teddy Warner and Molly Warndorf
MIT Jews for Collective Liberation
MIT Reading for Revolution
MIT Taara
Next Bake
TransMIT
UE Local 256 – MIT Graduate Student Union
If you as an individual are interested in signing onto the open letter, please reach out to your department steward or find an organizer tabling in Lobby 10 the week of October 6, 2025. If you are a leader of an MIT campus organization and would like to sign on as such, please fill out the form here.
Interested in collecting signatures? Fill out this form and we will follow up with you.