WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — The Pentagon is taking aim at colleges they accuse of being in opposition to their core values, impacting the College of William & Mary.
"We will no longer invest in institutions that fail to sharpen our leaders' warfighting capabilities or that undermine the very values they are sworn to defend," a Pentagon memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reads.
The Pentagon canceled the Senior Service College (SSC) fellowship program at 13 colleges. The College of William & Mary was included in the list of schools set to lose this funding. Only one military student benefiting from this program is enrolled at William & Mary, according to the Defense Department memo.
On Feb. 6, Hegseth, a Harvard and Princeton graduate, announced on social media that the Defense Department will review its policies and fellowships concerning other colleges, following its decision to end academic relations with Harvard.
"[We] will evaluate all existing graduate programs for active-duty service members at all Ivy League universities and other civilian universities," Hegseth said. "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."
William & Mary put the following statement on their website:
"As a public university with a longstanding commitment to supporting our military and veteran students, William & Mary is puzzled and saddened to be listed as part of the Department of War’s announcement canceling the Senior Service College program. We hope to learn more because this action does not align with what we know to be the experience of military and veteran students on our campus.
Consistently ranked among our country’s most military friendly institutions, William & Mary has one of the nation’s longest and strongest traditions of educating military and public servants. W&M Army ROTC is called the Revolutionary Guard battalion and is the only Army ROTC in the nation that was awarded the battle streamer from the Battle of Yorktown during the Revolutionary War. Indeed, W&M Chancellor and alumnus Robert M. Gates ‘65 served as U.S. Secretary of Defense under presidents of both parties.
We have not received official notification from the Department of War about any change in status affecting our programs or our students, or any information related to why we were included in the department’s February 27 announcement.
William & Mary remains deeply committed to supporting all our service members."
Regent University is listed as being under consideration to get a fellowship partnership, according to the Pentagon memo.
