The Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday became the first university to reject President Donald Trump’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which critics have called an “extortion” agreement for federal funding.

MIT and eight other schools — the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Virginia — were invited to sign the pledge earlier this month.

Sally Kornbluth, MIT’s president, met with US Education Secretary Linda McMahon earlier this year and on Friday published her response to the administration’s letter on the school’s website.

“The institute’s mission of service to the nation directs us

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