‘Toxic Indoctrination’: Dept Of War Cuts Fellowships At 13 ‘Elite’ Universities

Authored by Gabrielle Temaat via The College Fix,

The U.S. Department of Defense announced the cancellation of its military education fellowships at 13 top universities on Friday, citing “toxic indoctrination.”

“We are eliminating certain Senior Service College (SSC) Fellowship programs for the 2026-2027 academic year and beyond. I am also directing the compilation of a revised list of elite institutions offering equivalent programs to replace those eliminated,” the agency wrote in a memo to Pentagon leadership. 

It said this change will give leaders “a more rigorous and relevant education.”

Further, in a video posted on X,  Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, “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.”

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

For too long, the Ivy League and similar institutions have been subjecting our warriors to woke indoctrination—those days are over. pic.twitter.com/0xMC6BArDd

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) February 27, 2026

“We cannot and will not continue to send our most capable officers, senior officers, into graduate programs that undermine the very values they have sworn to uphold,” Hegseth said. 

He also said “so-called elite universities” have “poisoned” the U.S. military education system and “abused their privilege and access to this department and utterly betrayed their purpose.”

The 13 universities include Tufts, Georgetown, Brown, Columbia, Princeton, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Yale, among others, according to the memo. 

Department personnel currently attending these schools will be allowed to finish their studies. 

The department is also cutting ties with seven non-profit institutions, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, The Brookings Institution, Center for a New American Security, and Council on Foreign Relations.

The memo names potential new partners such as Liberty University, Hillsdale College, Arizona State University, Pepperdine University, Baylor University, and The University of Tennessee.

Last month, Hegseth ordered evaluations of programs at all Ivy League schools and others with “significant adversary involvement,” according to another department memo.

“The goal is to determine whether or not they actually deliver cost-effective strategic education for future senior leaders when compared to, say, public universities and our military graduate programs,” Hegseth stated.  

This comes amid the Department of War’s recent decision to officially sever major ties with Harvard University, as previously reported by The College Fix.

Last month, it announced the military will no longer send active-duty officers to Harvard for fellowships, certificate programs, or graduate-level Professional Military Education.

“Harvard is woke. The War Department is not,” Hegseth stated on X.