Linda McMahon Asks Universities to Define Commitments to ‘National Service’ by Year’s End

Linda McMahon Asks Universities to Define Commitments to ‘National Service’ by Year’s End

In her letter, McMahon basically said that higher education has lost the plot. She is so right.

The Hill reports:

McMahon asks universities to outline commitments to ‘national service’

Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Monday urged American universities to outline their commitments to a set of Trump administration priorities by the end of this year.

In an open letter to university presidents and board members, McMahon lamented that higher education institutions, in her view, have “drifted from the principles that built up so much public esteem.”

McMahon added, “Before the end of 2026, I call on every postsecondary institution to describe to the American public your commitments to rigorous teaching, pathbreaking research, and national service—commitments that make our universities a bedrock institution of the American republic.”

The Education secretary asked for university leaders to address seven topics, ranging from the transparency of their admissions processes to the promotion of the “free exchange of ideas” on campus.

“I know that there is no single template for academic excellence, and I hope we will witness a variety of institutional types, each with distinct missions and priorities, issue landmark declarations of purpose that will revitalize higher education in the years ahead,” McMahon wrote.

Seven in 10 Americans told the Pew Research Center in September that U.S. higher education was going in the wrong direction, up from 56 percent in 2020. Just 28 percent of respondents to the Pew survey believed the sector was heading in the right direction.

The second Trump administration has taken an aggressive approach toward universities, launching a number of investigations into alleged discrimination — particularly over concerns of antisemitism on campus — at Ivy League schools last year and briefly freezing their federal research funding.

While some institutions, including Columbia University and Brown University, reached deals with the administration to end the administration’s probes and restore research funding, multiple university leaders rejected a compact the administration proposed later in 2025.

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