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The Defense Department has selected the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Virginia Tech to host a revamped fellowship program for senior military officers — the first universities approved after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth severed partnerships with top universities.
The two universities will participate in the new Senior Service College Fellowship, a 10-month professional military education program that serves as an alternative to traditional war colleges. Additional university partners will be announced at a later date, according to the department.
“We are deeply honored to participate in the Senior Service College Fellowship program. The program fits well within the context of our mission of service, and we take tremendous pride in our deep, longstanding relationship with the United States military,” said UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor Lee H. Roberts said in a statement.
The announcement follows an earlier move from Hegseth, barring military officers from attending graduate programs at several elite universities including Harvard, Brown, Princeton and Yale,
Hegseth, who graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Kennedy School, argued that the universities had become “woke breeding grounds of toxic indoctrination.”
“We demand that senior service colleges work to sharpen our war fighters on genuine national security issues, not social justice activism,” the Pentagon chief said.
Anthony Tata, the undersecretary of war for personnel and readiness, said the fellowship overhaul is intended to better prepare senior officers for future conflicts.
“The Department of War is revitalizing professional military education to ensure that our warfighters are prepared to achieve peace through strength,” Tata said in a statement.
“We are proud to partner with Chancellor Roberts and UNC-Chapel Hill — a university with a rich tradition of service and support for our men and women in uniform — to develop a rigorous new Senior Service College Fellowship Program, equipping our officers to meet our critical national security mission,” he continued.
Virginia Tech, which required military training at its founding in 1872, has been invited to host officers from all the military branches as part of the Senior Service College Fellowship Program, according to the school in Blacksburg.
UNC said its military ties stretch back its founding by Revolutionary War commander William Richardson Davie. Three former U.S. presidents were connected to the program: Gerald Ford, who served as an instructor; George H.W. Bush who trained as a cadet; and Ronald Reagan, who visited as a celebrity performer.
Today, the university says it serves roughly 1,200 military-affiliated students, more than 1,300 military dependents and 150 Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets and midshipmen.
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