On Feb. 27, the U.S. Department of War announced Auburn University as a potential partner institution for the military’s Senior Service College (SSC) fellowship program in a memorandum titled "Aligning Senior Service College Opportunities with American Values." In the announcement, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signed and laid out the department's plans for the future of senior military education.
In the memorandum, Auburn University is listed alongside several notable schools, including but not limited to the Citadel, the University of Tennessee, Clemson University, the University of Michigan and the University of Florida, as part of the Pentagon’s goal of realigning the SSC Fellowships.
On Feb. 27, the Department of War published a YouTube video titled "The Ivy League and Similar Institutions have been Subjecting our Warriors to Woke Indoctrination," in which Hegseth argued that the Ivy League and similar institutions have perpetuated "woke indoctrination" in the military as the title states.
“Our senior service colleges have always been expected to act in the interest of this principle: to transform our senior warfighters into strategic thinkers capable of mastering the complexities of modern warfare and leading our joint force to victory at every echelon," Hegseth said. "Unfortunately, this sacred trust has been broken in this military’s professional education system. It’s been poisoned from within by a class of so-called elite universities that have abused their privilege and access to this department and utterly betrayed their purpose."
Hegseth said that the Ivy League and similar institutions have wasted taxpayer dollars to become "factories of anti-American resentment and military disdain," explaining these institutions have taken the best and brightest of the United States and subjected them to study "wokeness and weakness."
"They have replaced the study of victory and pragmatic realism with the promotion of wokeness and weakness. They have traded true intellectual rigor with radical dogma, sacrificing free expression for the suffocating confines of leftist ideology. What is the purpose, you may ask, in investing in an education that teaches our warriors to despise the very nation they swore to defend? What's the value of a degree that seeks to hollow out the warrior ethos and replace it with a creed of globalist submission? The answer is simple: There is none," Hegseth said.
In the official Feb. 27 memorandum, Hegseth explained the importance of the Professional Military Education (PME) institutions and the reasoning behind the changes coming to the 2026-27 academic year.
“Our Professional Military Education (PME) institutions are among our most sacred and essential means to restore and maintain the warrior ethos within the DoD. It is imperative that our warfighter education system forges strategic leaders who are trained to think critically, free of bias and influence,” Hegseth said. “The Department is strategically refocusing the education of its senior officers. Therefore, per my Feb. 6, 2026, memorandum, ‘Rebuilding the Warrior Ethos in Professional Military Education,’ we are eliminating certain Senior Service College (SSC) Fellowship programs for the 2026-2027 academic year and beyond. I am also directing the compilation of a revised list of elite institutions offering equivalent programs to replace those eliminated.”
PME institutions are schools that educate and train members of the armed forces to enhance their leadership and strategic planning skills. These institutions differ from the Service Academies, such as West Point or the Naval Academy, because they were established by Congress and are operated by federal departments. Senior Military Colleges (SMCs), such as Norwich University and Virginia Tech, also differ from the discussed PME institutions, because they offer Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) and hold special designations. For military officers who attend PME institutions, it depends on the type of schooling, the officer's rank and institution selected on how the tuition is paid.
Among the list of cancelled SSC Fellowship institutions are Harvard University, MIT, Georgetown University, Brown University, Yale University, Princeton University and many others.
Both Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Sen. Katie Britt commented on the announcement via Xre-posts of the Yellowhammer News article, “Pentagon eyes Auburn University as potential military education partner,” which announced the decision.
“Auburn University is and will continue to be an EXCEPTIONAL partner institution for the Department of War. The state of Alabama and the entire SEC are filled with young PATRIOTS who (unlike Ivy Leaguers) LOVE AMERICA,” Tuberville said.
“The Department of War’s Decision to partner with Auburn University to advance the military education of young Americans seeking to serve their country is great news for Alabama and our entire nation,” Britt said.
In an immediate Feb. 12 press release from the Pentagon, the Department of War also said that, starting in the 2026-27 school year, all graduate-level PME fellowships and certificate programs with Harvard University will be discontinued, and similar programs at Ivy League and other universities will be eliminated. The department said that the policy changes will not affect any service members or DoW civilians currently enrolled in the affected programs, as these individuals will be allowed to complete their course of study.
There has been no official contract or response from Auburn University, so the future of the senior military education at Auburn remains relatively unknown as of March 16.
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