After Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last month that the Pentagon would cut ties with Harvard University over ideological differences, Harvard is trying to create a workaround for students in the military.
The Harvard Kennedy School, one of the schools at Harvard attended by service members, is offering to let them defer admission or help them pursue spots at four other institutions if they are accepted to the Kennedy School for the 2026-27 academic year.
Secretary Hegseth announced the Pentagon’s break with Harvard in a video released Feb. 6, in which he called Harvard “one of the red-hot centers of hate-America activism” and accused “too many” military members who graduate from Harvard of developing radical ideologies.
Mr. Hegseth, who graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2013 with a master’s degree in public policy, said that he would “discontinue all graduate-level professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs” between Harvard and his department, beginning with the next academic year.
“Harvard, good riddance,” Mr. Hegseth said in his video.
On Feb. 27, Mr. Hegseth further distanced the Pentagon from Harvard and other U.S. schools, including Georgetown, M.I.T., Columbia, Yale, Princeton and Brown University, by eliminating certain fellowship programs at 22 schools and public policy institutions.
It is still unclear precisely what Mr. Hegseth’s Feb. 6 order covers. A spokesman for the Department of Defense responded on Wednesday to questions by citing Mr. Hegseth’s video and a prior statement, which do not specifically say whether active duty members of the military have been ordered not to attend the Kennedy School under any circumstances.
If they are not allowed to attend, military members accepted this spring to the Kennedy School will be able to defer their admission for up to four years, according to a copy of a letter to applicants from Jeremy Weinstein, dean of the Harvard Kennedy School.
While the school typically grants only a limited number of one-year deferrals, Mr. Weinstein said, “we hope that this extended deferral opportunity will make it possible for you to come to H.K.S. to study later if you can’t make it now.”
Officials at four other graduate schools have agreed to give quick consideration to applications from active-duty military members who are accepted to the Kennedy School but who don’t want to put off their education, Mr. Weinstein said.
Those programs are the Harris School at the University of Chicago, the Fletcher School at Tufts University, the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Gerald R. Ford School at the University of Michigan.
“For those who opt in to this process, applications will be reviewed on an expedited timeline and without significant additional work on your part,” Mr. Weinstein informed applicants in his letter.
Military members have traditionally been part of the Kennedy School’s degree programs, its executive education program, and a national security fellowship at the school’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Mark Arsenault covers higher education for The Times.
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