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EXCLUSIVE: A military college in Pennsylvania has become the first school in the country to offer to join President Donald Trump’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Education after seven highbrow schools declined to participate.
Valley Forge Military College sent a letter on Tuesday to Dr. David Barker, the Trump administration’s assistant secretary for postsecondary education, expressing its desire to be part of the compact.
“On behalf of Valley Forge Military College, we are writing to express our desire and honor to be the first military college to support you and our Commander in Chief, President Donald J. Trump, by signing the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” the letter says. “We share the Compact’s commitment to advancing educational quality, access, and accountability across American institutions of higher learning, and we would be honored to participate in this important national initiative.”
The school is a two-year junior college founded in 1935 that provides an early commissioning program for officers in the U.S. Army, the Army Reserve and the National Guard. Students graduate as military officers, and 98% of them transfer to other colleges to complete a four-year degree after attending. The school also offers a “Citizen Leader Program” for civilians who want the structure and discipline of a military institution.
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“Our mission—to educate, train, and inspire the leaders of tomorrow—aligns naturally with the Compact’s goals of promoting institutional excellence and preparing students for meaningful contributions to society,” the letter to the Trump administration says.
The compact’s principles include merit-based admissions and hiring practices regardless of race, sex, political orientation, ethnicity and nationality, and a commitment to freedom of ideas and “abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”
It also asks universities to recognize biological sex for the purpose of athletics, restrooms and locker rooms, demands political neutrality in higher education, and includes a measure about collegiate financial responsibility and some limits on admissions for foreign students.
In exchange for participation, the administration is offering preferential federal funding to universities who join the compact.
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Some of the schools said that they feel their missions are already in line with the compact’s stipulations. Others said they think the compact would undermine academic freedom.
But Valley Forge Military College has a different opinion.
“Participation in the Compact would provide valuable opportunities for collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement,” the Valley Forge Military College letter continues. “We are particularly eager to contribute to discussions on leadership education, student resilience, and pathways from two-year programs to four-year institutions. These are areas in which Valley Forge has developed effective practices and measurable outcomes that could benefit peer institutions.”
“Please consider this letter an expression of Valley Forge Military College’s full support and enthusiasm for the Compact’s objectives,” the letter says.
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It is signed by Marine Corps Col. Stuart Helgeson, who is the president of Valley Forge Military College, and John English, a Marine Corps veteran himself, who serves as the school’s board chairman.
“We are a small, private institution, so if it would allow us — and we have some hefty visions and goals to revamp parts of the campus to grow some of our programs — and if this is a way we could help do that, we thought it was a good thing to do,” Helgeson told Fox News Digital.
“We’re not chasing down government money from the Department of Education,” said English. “We’re not chasing down students from overseas to pay exorbitant amounts of tuition to kind of keep your college going. That’s the current model in higher education. We’re totally different with a very specific model of making officers for the United States military. And as Colonel Helgeson likes to say, he’s over there creating warriors.”
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The Trump administration solicited feedback from nine schools, some public and some private, nationwide. A feedback deadline was set for Oct. 20. None of the colleges signed the compact, with MIT, the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California and the University of Virginia declining to participate.
Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas at Austin have been noncommittal on the proposal.
“Some of these colleges and universities are scared of their own shadow,” English said, noting that they might fear blowback from students, faculty and donors. “They don’t know where they’re going and how they’re leading. Ours is very, very simple. We’re making officers and warriors to serve in the United States military to keep this country safe.”
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Both men noted that the school already meets the requirements stipulated in the compact.
Helgeson said that at Valley Forge, partisan politics are not a factor in students’ education or professors’ lectures. The school prides itself on nonpartisanship, and is strictly focused on graduating military officers so they can further their own educations and serve the country.
“Why are you letting politics get in the way of furthering your institution?” Helgeson asked rhetorically.
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He listed some of the goals his college is trying to meet, including expanding its NSA-certified cybersecurity program and a new drone piloting initiative.
“We want to build out labs,” he said. “We want to continue to make these programs better so our nation can receive these kids at the highest training available. And if this allows us to get on board and be eligible, then why wouldn’t we?”
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