Hegseth severs ties with Middlebury College

Beginning in September 2026, the Department of Defense banned members of the U.S. military from pursuing Senior Service College (SSC) Fellowships at Middlebury College. The move came amid growing concern among Pentagon officials about “indoctrination” of service members and “wokeness” in certain higher education institutions — Middlebury included. 

Those who participated in an SSC Fellowship at Middlebury in the 2025-2026 academic year were permitted to finish their course of study. Only one “military student” was enrolled with Middlebury-affiliated programs last year, an Army College Fellow at the Monterey Institute for International Studies (MIIS). This year, under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s directive, there are none. Army College, after Hegseth’s memo was released, sent MIIS an official communication that last year’s fellow would be the last. 

“We will no longer invest in institutions that fail to sharpen our leaders’ warfighting capabilities or that undermine the very values they are sworn to defend,” Hegseth’s February memo reads. 

The policy cut ties with 22 institutions, including Harvard, Yale and Princeton, as well as several think-tanks in Washington, like the Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Hegseth included potential replacement institutions in his memo, among them Christian colleges like Liberty University and Hillsdale College, and larger public universities like the University of North Carolina and the University of Michigan. Across all 22 institutions targeted in the memo, 93 individuals were enrolled as SSC fellows.

SSC Fellowships are 10-month to yearlong professional development programs for senior members of the U.S. military. Applicants must already have a bachelor’s degree, and the curriculum combines site visits and workshops with national-security-focused coursework. Fellows often go on to higher-level policy-focused positions within the U.S. military after completing the program. 

Middlebury’s robust international studies and political science programs have attracted a wide array of service members, both to the now-sold MIIS and to the Middlebury Language Schools. For more than a decade, MIIS facilitated a negotiations simulation program over the course of a weekend, in partnership with the Army War College and civilian institutions like Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley. This, alongside the Army War College Fellowship, has since been canceled. 

MIIS brands itself as a “military-friendly school,” and attracts not only active service members but also retired military members and veterans to its international studies programs. MIIS currently has every veteran-friendly certification that an institution can receive, according to Director of MIIS Jeff Dayton-Johnson. 

“They’ve seen the harm that war making can do, and they are often very thoughtful champions of peace,” Dayton-Johnson said in an interview with The Campus. “They have a real humanity about them that they bring to the discussion.” 

According to Dayton-Johnson, around 10% of MIIS students are either U.S. Army veterans or their dependents. He is unsure how Hegseth’s directive will affect their ability to enroll at MIIS, or use G.I. bill benefits to fund their education. 

Aside from SSC Fellowships, MIIS offered specific programs for Foreign Area Officers (FAOs), combining intensive language learning with regional studies. MIIS partnered with the neighboring Naval Postgraduate School, and FAOs would frequently cross-enroll between the two institutions. The Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey has also sent official communication to MIIS that they would be ending the cross-enrollment program.

Graduates of the MIIS FAO program have gone on to serve as defense attachés at U.S. embassies, foreign service officers with the Department of State, and translators. Vitaly Gelfat MIIS’00, who received his M.A. in International Policy Studies from MIIS, currently serves as the Presidential Translator at the Washington-Moscow Hotline. 

“[FAOs] tell me, in private, that they regret that we can’t continue cooperating. So given that, I think there will be an appetite to restart these partnerships,” Dayton-Johnson said. 

As MIIS is in the process of transitioning to ownership by Soka University, there is a possibility that military-affiliated programming could resume. For now, the future of the military's relationship with Middlebury through the MIIS graduate programs remains uncertain. 

Hegseth’s decision will not affect undergraduates at Middlebury College that are involved in  the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) programming or receive military scholarships’ experience. Undergraduates’ training will continue as usual, and their enrollment at Middlebury will not affect their role assignments post-graduation. 

Lieutenant Colonel David Kidd, who currently directs the Vermont ROTC program and whose grandmother was a Middlebury graduate, emphasized the exceptional performance of Middlebury ROTC cadets. Of the 14 cadets that graduated from Middlebury over the past 10 years, 11 were in the top 10% of the nation after their junior year evaluations. 

“We love our Middlebury cadets and they do really well in the United States Army, and they get offered stuff just because they’re from Middlebury,” Kidd said. 

There are usually around two to three cadets per year at Middlebury. As of this year, the number of ROTC-involved students sits at ten. Middlebury will graduate two ROTC cadets in January and May, with one going on to serve in the National Guard, and the other in the U.S. Army. 

“What we do here is we’re going to teach everyone who comes here to learn, grow and become leaders. That’s really what we’re about,” Kidd said. “We really appreciate and recognize the dedication it takes for the students.” 

For Jay Zhi-Jye Wendell ’26.5, his academic studies at Middlebury — studying economics — and his ROTC experience existed as a “marriage” between two distinct educational approaches. 

“Obviously the Middlebury side of things is much more academic, especially in the economics department, whereas ROTC kind of builds up interpersonal skills, but also leadership skills, maybe a little bit of grit,” he said.

ROTC-involved students are not expected to commit to post-graduation service until their junior year. For now, ROTC programming will continue unchanged, despite broader tensions between the Department of Defense and Middlebury College. Veterans and retired military members are still allowed to pursue graduate studies at Middlebury’s Language Schools, but active service members and foreign area officers are prevented from attending MIIS, Middlebury Language Schools and the college itself through military-subsidized fellowships.