EXCLUSIVE: In a groundbreaking move, a military college in Pennsylvania has stepped forward as the first educational institution in the United States to join President Donald Trump’s initiative, the Compact for Academic Excellence in Education. This comes after the proposal was declined by several prestigious universities.
Valley Forge Military College took a pioneering step by sending an official letter to Dr. David Barker, the assistant secretary for postsecondary education in the Trump administration, on Tuesday. The letter expressed the college’s keen interest in participating in the compact.
The letter stated, “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. 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.”
Accompanying the letter is an image of students in military uniforms walking across the Valley Forge Military College campus, encapsulating the spirit and tradition of the institution. (Courtesy: Valley Forge Military College)
Established in 1935, Valley Forge Military College is a two-year junior college renowned for its early commissioning program for future officers in the U.S. Army, Army Reserve, and National Guard. The college boasts a robust track record, with 98% of its graduates transferring to other institutions to complete their four-year degrees. Additionally, the college offers a “Citizen Leader Program” aimed at civilians seeking the discipline and structure a military environment provides.
In the letter to the Trump administration, the college emphasized its mission: “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 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.
Valley Forge Military College students kneel in front of a Blackhawk helicopter on an unknown date. (Courtesy: Valley Forge Military College)
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.
An aerial shot of the Valley Forge Military College campus in Pennsylvania taken on an unknown date. (Courtesy: Valley Forge Military College )
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.”
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.
The Valley Forge Military College chapel with pink trees blossoming. (Courtesy: Valley Forge Military College)
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.”
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.
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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