On Feb. 27, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth published a video announcing the severing of ties from the government, particularly the Department of War (neé Defense), from several accredited universities. Included in this list are several Ivy Leagues including Yale, MIT, Columbia University in New York, Princeton and Harvard — two schools that the honorable Hegseth himself went to, and graduated from — and various other well-known and renowned universities like George Washington University, Georgetown and Tufts.
His reasoning for no longer allowing members of our military to go to these schools for advanced degrees? The government, quote, "cannot and will not continue to send our most capable officers, senior officers, into graduate programs that undermine the very values they have sworn to uphold." In his own words, our Secretary of War described these academically-irreplaceable colleges as "factories of anti-American resentment and military disdain."
In case you're curious, there was no backing for either statement. There was no real reasoning provided, nor was there any sort of justification. He slapped a broad label on the top academic institutions in this nation because, if we're being honest, they don't bow down to every single command and bark from our current presidential administration. Of course, you can't make cuts to something without replacing said removals with something new. On Hegseth's list of "Potential New Partner Institutions," prominently featured is only one university within the state of Alabama, and it's our esteemed Auburn University. Joining the best school in the state are only the best and brightest schools within the nation, such as Liberty University, George Mason University and Arizona State.
So, if you're a senior leader in the Army, Air Force, Navy or Marines, you cannot get your master's or doctorate from Columbia or Harvard. However, if you want to go and get your degree along with the ASU Frat Leader, go right ahead. These schools aren't listed because of merit or academic rigor; the list provided by the Department of War is simply a checklist of some of the most politically conservative schools in the nation.
No, we shouldn't have any sort of pride in Auburn being listed among these schools. Quite bluntly, the only reason that we're listed is because our university's upper administrative levels bend a knee to the powers that be. Not for the good of the students, its own staff, or those in the surrounding community, no—because of an obsession with the current administration and a senseless need to be seen as anti-woke.
There seems to be some sort of fixation on using the term "woke" like it's some sort of slur. Woke universities, woke people, woke communities, woke curriculums! It's a buzzword that the more conservatively-minded use to describe, quite literally, anything that they don't like. That mindset has carried itself to the campus and administration of Auburn University, which is the only reason that our lovely college is on the published list from Hegseth. We shut ourselves off to any sort of criticism towards American ideals, the state of our country and administration, or really anything culturally, we are recognized. Frankly, our place as a "Potential New Partner Institution" should be a source of shame. We have, essentially, been recognized for our stubbornness.
As higher-level universities teach "anti-American resentment" (a dog whistle for "anything that doesn't say America and its government are perfect with absolutely zero issues") and military disdain ("anything that doesn't treat the American military complex as anything but unflawed"), we instead focus on removing critical race theory (quite simply the belief that institutional racism exists) from our curriculums and host Turning Point events that insist that white genocide is real and mock disparaged peoples for no reason other to put down people seen as different.
If you take even a surface level glance at the list we've been placed on and don't feel an ounce of embarrassment seeing what schools we're compared to, I question your level of consciousness. Aren't you so proud to be seen next to the Liberty University? The school that, barely two years ago, was fined $14 million for internal, systemic underreporting of on-campus crimes, primarily sexual assault, for a period of nine years? What about The Citadel, a military college with hazing allegations more abundant and worse in nature than any other senior military college (SMC) in the country? How could you not feel so accomplished to be on the same level as these schools?
I don't necessarily say this to put down the populations of these schools, nor our own, but rather to critique the cultures present that are so prevalent. This should function as a wake-up call to those unaware of how we are seen by not only the government, but the general population. Auburn should represent the best of Alabama, and not be the most divisive part of it.
While I will never be ashamed of saying "War Eagle," and will never hide my pride for my school, it certainly hurts to do so when we're so openly anti-intellectual and so closed off to anything that isn't the status quo. Hopefully, it's more easily understood why our place on an unsuccessful and under-skilled former Fox News host's list of "partner institutions" isn't anything to be remotely happy about. Hopefully, we're able to do better as a school.
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Matt is an Auburn student studying Political Science.
