American University was not affected by cuts to Department of Defense tuition assistance programs for active-duty service members after the list of universities under scrutiny was narrowed by a recent Pentagon review.
Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a Feb. 6 memo titled “Rebuilding the Warrior Ethos in Professional Military Education” that the Department of Defense was considering ending graduate tuition assistance for active-duty military personnel attending dozens of universities. He cited alleged anti-military bias and what the Pentagon described as “troublesome partnerships with foreign adversaries.”
The review, first reported by CNN, followed the Pentagon severing academic ties with Harvard University, discontinuing graduate-level military programs due to Harvard’s “woke” ideology.
American University was initially among the institutions identified by CNN that could be affected. However, there is no direct mention of the University in the initial memo or the Defense Department’s latest directive. Instead, the memos primarily focused on eliminating some fellowship and professional military education programs at a smaller set of universities beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year.
American University was not mentioned in any official Department of Defense statements, lists or documents about this matter, according to University Director of Strategic Internal Communications and Engagement Silvana Gutierrez.
“We have not been contacted by the Department of Defense. The CNN report included unconfirmed information, and we have no knowledge about why American University was referenced in that reporting,” she wrote in an email to The Eagle.
A Feb. 27 Pentagon memo said the military should no longer invest in academic programs that fail to strengthen leadership or undermine the values officers are sworn to defend. The directive ends 93 Senior Service College fellowship programs at 22 institutions across the country. These programs allow senior officers to study leadership, national security, policy or international affairs.
Among the nearby institutions with canceled fellowships are Georgetown University, which has six military students, and George Washington University, with one, according to the memo.
Jennifer Steele, a professor of the economics and policy of education in AU’s School of Education, said that graduation assistance programs allow active-duty service members to pursue advanced degrees while continuing their military careers, often covering thousands of dollars in annual tuition costs.
She added that these cuts could make it difficult for military students to continue to pay for school. “The reason they do that is because of recruitment and retention of military folks, because it’s a hard and dangerous job to go into,” Steele said.
Military tuition assistance is widely used across U.S. higher education. The Department of Defense provides up to $4,500 annually in tuition support for service members enrolled in graduate programs.
The Pentagon’s review is part of Hegseth’s attacks on “woke” universities across the United States. In a video posted to X on Feb. 27, Hegseth announced that the “Ivy Leagues and other elite institutions have gorged themselves on a trust fund of American taxpayer dollars, only to become factories of anti-American resentment and military disdain.”
Steele said elite universities, along with all other colleges and universities, teach free thought and evidence-based thinking.
“With the Trump administration, there really appears to be a strong desire to force colleges and universities to change the content of what they teach and to do it aligned with a particular political agenda,” she said.
This article was edited by Owen Auston-Babcock, Payton Anderson and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Avery Grossman, Mattie Lupo, Ava Stuzin and Jaden Maitland Anderson. Fact-checking by Andrew Kummeth.
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