With billions of dollars of funding at risk, Harvard University on Monday rejected a list of President Donald Trump’s demands that the administration says serve to combat antisemitism.
“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Harvard’s lawyers wrote in a letter to the administration. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.”
Later Monday night, the administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism froze $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and an additional $60 million in contracts with Harvard.
“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges—that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws,” the Task Force said. “The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable. The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable.’
The administration has targeted the funding of Harvard and dozens of other elite colleges and universities for their responses to protests against the war in Gaza. In Harvard’s case, along with a demand to crackdown on antisemitism, it required the university to discontinue diversity, equity and inclusivity initiatives, and more strictly enforce its code of conduct in punishing disruptive students.
Harvard acknowledges that it has made robust efforts to tackle antisemitism over the past year but contends the administration’s latest demands are illegal and violate Harvard’s First Amendment rights.
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Harvard President Alan Garber said the Trump administration is demanding the university “’audit’ the viewpoints of our student body, faculty, staff,” in order to stifle those with certain ideological views.
Federal funds given to Harvard and other research institutions anchor some of the most important partnerships in American history, Garber added.
“New frontiers beckon us with the prospect of life-changing advances—from treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and diabetes, to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, quantum science and engineering, and numerous other areas of possibility,” Garber noted on the university’s website.
“For the government to retreat from these partnerships now risks not only the health and well-being of millions of individuals but also the economic security and vitality of our nation.”
In its list of demands, the Trump administration says of Harvard’s federal funding that “an investment is not an entitlement” and accuses the university of failing to shield its scholarship and campus climate from “ideological capture.”
The following article is a part of University Business’ ongoing coverage of President Donald J. Trump’s impact on higher education during his second term in office. Click here for the latest updates.
