Carnegie Mellon University among schools Pentagon may block from tuition reimbursement

Last week, the Pentagon said it may block military members from using tuition aid at many top universities across the country, including Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's statement described the schools as being biased against the U.S. military and sponsoring "troublesome partnerships with foreign adversaries." 

The memo signed by Hegseth rolled out the new policy, and it impacts more than 30 universities and schools, including CMU and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as others such as Harvard and MIT. 

Starting with the 2026-27 academic year, the Pentagon will discontinue graduate-level professional military education, fellowships, and certificate programs, the statement said. 

In his post, Hegseth said officers who were sent to study at Harvard frequently came back with "heads full of globalist and radical ideologies." He also alleged the university had "fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment." 

Carnegie Mellon said it has supported military education since World War I. While it's aware of reports of this tuition reimbursement possibly going away, the school has not received any formal notification.  

U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick doesn't know too much about what the secretary wants to do, but he said he has had some concerns with the country's elite colleges.

"I think our universities have some work to do in terms of making sure that they don't have an ideological bias, making sure that funding is appropriately directed towards non-political agendas," he said while in Pittsburgh on Monday.

Hegseth got his master's degree from Harvard but gave it back in a symbolic TV segment.

Mayor Corey O'Connor said this could harm the recruitment and retention of talent at one of the most prestigious universities in our region.

"Let's not forget they have a lot of contracts that are connected to the federal government to support our military all across the world," O'Connor said. 

McCormick, an Army veteran himself, said we need to have the military use our universities to better themselves.

"You don't want a military that's totally separate from our universities, and our universities benefit from having our great officers there," McCormick said.

In a statement, CMU said, "Current education initiatives span a Navy ROTC program preparing officers to support the Navy's vital nuclear mission, as well as Ph.D., masters and executive education courses that engage more than 1,300 senior officers and rapid occupational training in AI and robotics for soldiers and sailors, ensuring our military are the best in the world in understanding and deploying cutting edge technology. These programs also help anchor the presence of 150 AI-trained Army personnel in our region."

Naval veteran Congressman Chris Deluzio said in a statement, "Carnegie Mellon has some of the most advanced and innovative research and programs of any university in the world—discoveries that our country and military both benefit from. Banning our military from CMU would be foolish and hurt both national defense and Western Pennsylvania at the same time."

O'Connor says the city will speak with the university and allies in government to see what they can do to help veterans and the school.  

"They signed up to keep us all free. Now they are not going to get a benefit to have tuition supported at college? That's crazy," he said.

This would not take effect until the 26-27 school year. It would stop graduate-level professional military education, fellowships, and certificate programs.