United States President Donald Trump’s marketing campaign to stress universities into dropping variety, fairness and inclusion measures and punishing pupil protesters has confronted its strongest pushback but when Harvard University rejected a collection of calls for from his administration.
Monday’s choice shortly prompted the US Division of Training to freeze practically $2.3bn in federal funding for the Ivy League establishment ranked among the many greatest universities within the US.
So what occurred between Harvard and Trump, and why did the establishment threat billions of {dollars} to go in opposition to the administration’s calls for?
What did the Trump administration ask Harvard to do?
The heads of the US Division of Training, Division of Well being and Human Companies, and the Normal Companies Administration co-signed a letter to Harvard on Friday. On this letter, they claimed “Harvard has in recent times didn’t stay as much as each the mental and civil rights circumstances that justify federal funding.”
This was adopted by a listing of calls for for the college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to fulfil. Key amongst them have been:
- Selling school dedicated to the Trump administration’s calls for of Harvard, as articulated within the letter, and “decreasing the facility” of school and directors “extra dedicated to activism than scholarship”.
- Ending all affirmative motion in school hiring and pupil admissions by August. On the similar time, the letter demanded that the college guarantee “viewpoint variety” by abolishing standards throughout admissions and hiring processes “that operate as ideological litmus exams”.
- Altering the admissions course of “to forestall admitting worldwide college students hostile to the American values”, together with “college students supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism”. The letter didn’t outline what it meant by “American values”. For the 2024-2025 tutorial 12 months, there have been 6,793 worldwide college students at Harvard, making up 27.2 % of its whole enrolment – up from lower than 20 % in 2006-2007.
- Altering disciplinary insurance policies and forbidding the popularity and funding of pupil teams or golf equipment that promote “felony exercise, unlawful violence, or unlawful harassment”.
- Implementing a complete masks ban with instant, critical penalties for violation “not lower than suspension” after some college students have protested whereas carrying masks. The letter didn’t record any exceptions to this rule, equivalent to well being causes.
- Closing all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programmes and workplaces and finishing up organisational reform to make sure transparency with federal regulators.
Harvard was given a deadline of August to implement these modifications. That is the second letter issued by the Trump administration to Harvard. The primary one was issued on April 3 and referred to as on Harvard to ban face masks and reform tutorial departments that it alleged have been responsible of anti-Semitic bias. Fees of anti-Semitism have been levelled in opposition to quite a few US universities and schools since widespread campus protests have been held in opposition to the warfare in Gaza.
How did Harvard reply to the calls for?
Harvard’s legal professionals responded to the Trump administration by saying the college rejected the calls for, arguing they violated its First Modification rights and freedoms recognised by the US Supreme Court docket. The US Structure’s First Modification upholds the rights to free speech, expression and meeting.
The college mentioned Harvard strongly opposes anti-Semitism and continues to make structural modifications to make sure that the establishment is a welcoming and supportive studying setting for all college students.
The college additionally printed a separate letter on-line signed by President Alan Garber on Monday. Within the letter, Garber mentioned federal grants have led to analysis and innovation in fields pertaining to science and medication. “These improvements have made numerous individuals in our nation and all through the world more healthy and safer,” he wrote.
The letter then referred to how the federal government had threatened to drag federal funding from a number of universities, together with Harvard, over allegations of anti-Semitism on campus. The letter mentioned the federal government retreating from its funding agreements with increased schooling establishments “dangers not solely the well being and well-being of hundreds of thousands of people but in addition the financial safety and vitality of our nation”.
The Harvard letter mentioned that whereas a few of the authorities’s calls for are aimed toward combating anti-Semitism, “the bulk signify direct governmental regulation of the ‘mental circumstances’ at Harvard.”
“The College is not going to give up its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber added.
The Harvard chapter of the American Affiliation of College Professors filed a lawsuit on Friday in a federal courtroom in Boston, accusing the Trump administration of “illegal and unprecedented misuse of federal funding and civil rights enforcement authority to undermine tutorial freedom and free speech on a college campus”.
What’s the backdrop to this standoff?
In January 2024, Garber had arrange presidential activity forces on campus to fight anti-Semitism and battle bias in opposition to Muslims and Arabs as Israel’s warfare on Gaza raged, igniting tensions on campuses around the globe, together with within the US.
In April 2024, pro-Palestine protesters arrange an encampment on the Harvard campus, referred to as Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP). The protesters demanded that Harvard divest from weapons firms and firms related to Israel.
At the moment, Garber mentioned HOOP had disrupted instructional actions on campus. In Could, the college and protesters mentioned that they had reached an settlement to finish the encampment, however the two events gave completely different accounts concerning the phrases of this settlement.
Whereas the coed protesters mentioned Harvard had agreed to their calls for, the college mentioned it had solely opened itself to dialogue on the calls for. For instance, pertaining to the scholars’ demand for the college to divest from firms with ties to Israel, Harvard mentioned it had agreed to be extra clear with its college students about how its endowment works.
How a lot federal funding might Harvard lose?
On Monday, hours after Harvard’s response, a activity pressure created by the US Division of Training to sort out anti-Semitism launched a press release asserting that $2.3bn in federal funding to the college had been frozen.
“Harvard’s assertion right now reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that’s endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and schools – that federal funding doesn’t include the duty to uphold civil rights legal guidelines,” the assertion mentioned. The frozen federal funds to Harvard embody $2.2bn in grants and $60m in contracts, the assertion added.
Nevertheless, more cash is at stake – about $9bn. On March 31, the Training Division, Division of Well being and Human Companies and the Normal Companies Administration launched a press release warning they’d review $255.6m in contracts between the federal authorities and Harvard and its associates. The assertion added that they’d additionally evaluation greater than $8.7bn in multiyear grant commitments to Harvard and its associates.
Harvard’s endowment amounted to $53.2bn within the 2024 fiscal 12 months — the biggest of any college. Nevertheless, donors determine which programmes, departments and functions 70 % of the annual endowment distribution is spent on. Endowment donations additionally dropped by $151m in 2024 as a number of billionaire donors stopped funding the establishment over its response to issues over anti-Semitism on campus, the college’s student-run newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, reported in October.
How have issues unfolded at different US universities?
Whereas Harvard is the primary college to reject the Trump administration’s calls for, it isn’t the primary Ivy League college to be focused.
Final 12 months, Columbia College in New York emerged because the epicentre of pro-Palestine campus protests. Protesters occupied a campus constructing, Hamilton Hall, on April 30. The college referred to as within the New York Police Department to crack down on pupil protesters.
In February, the Trump administration pulled again Columbia’s federal funding, price $400m, citing the establishment’s “failure to guard Jewish college students from anti-Semitic harassment”. In March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a current Columbia graduate and protest chief who had negotiated with the college through the campus demonstrations. Days earlier, the US Division of State revoked the visa of Ranjani Srinivasan, who was an city planning doctoral candidate at Columbia. Quickly after, Columbia unenrolled Srinivasan, who flew to Canada earlier than she may very well be deported.
On March 13, the federal government’s Joint Activity Power to Fight Anti-Semitism issued a letter to Columbia with 9 calls for for negotiations to revive the funding that was pulled. On March 18, Columbia accepted the federal government’s calls for, listed in a brand new memo. The memo mentioned protesting college students should current college identification if prompted. It added that face masks can be banned if they’re getting used to hide an individual’s id. Nevertheless, face coverings are nonetheless allowed for non secular or medical causes. The memo additionally added that Columbia had employed 36 safety officers who’ve particular powers to arrest college students, and the college continues to depend on New York police for extra safety help.
Over the previous few weeks, the Trump administration has suspended or frozen funding for Princeton, Cornell and Northwestern universities. The schools have responded by expressing frustration and highlighting how federal funding is essential for important analysis.
On April 11, the US Division of Power, which funds analysis at many universities, introduced a common cap on the oblique prices it will finance for initiatives it helps. The company mentioned this could save the federal government $405m a 12 months.
9 universities and three our bodies representing increased schooling establishments have since filed a lawsuit difficult that cap. The plaintiffs within the case embody the Affiliation of American Universities, American Council on Training, Affiliation of Public and Land-Grant Universities, Brown College, California Institute of Expertise, Cornell College, Board of Trustees of the College of Illinois, Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, the regents of the College of Michigan, Board of Trustees of Michigan State College, the trustees of Princeton College and the College of Rochester.
What are the reactions to Harvard’s dispute with Trump?
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders congratulated Harvard on X on Monday “for refusing to relinquish its constitutional rights to Trump’s authoritarianism”.
Congratulations to Harvard for refusing to relinquish its constitutional rights to Trump’s authoritarianism.
Different universities ought to comply with their lead.
And as an alternative of doing professional bono work for Trump, cowardly regulation companies must be defending those that imagine within the rule of regulation.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 14, 2025
Former US President Barack Obama posted on Tuesday: “Harvard has set an instance for different higher-ed establishments – rejecting an illegal and ham-handed try and stifle tutorial freedom.”
Harvard has set an instance for different higher-ed establishments – rejecting an illegal and ham-handed try and stifle tutorial freedom, whereas taking concrete steps to verify all college students at Harvard can profit from an setting of mental inquiry, rigorous debate and… https://t.co/gAu9UUqgjF
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 15, 2025
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey posted a press release on X congratulating Harvard for “standing in opposition to the Trump Administration’s brazen try and bully faculties and weaponize the US Division of Justice beneath the false pretext of civil rights”.
My assertion on @Harvard’s response to calls for from the Trump Administration. pic.twitter.com/IYa7LSG7iX
— Maura Healey (@MassGovernor) April 14, 2025
