The U.S. Administration Monday said it will freeze more than $2.2 billion in federal grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University after the prestigious institution said it would not cave into demands to overturn several of its academic and campus policies.
In accordance with President Donald Trump’s policies, the Administration demanded that the University follow demonstrable reforms and take steps to abandon any diversity, inclusion and equality practices and ensure “merit-based” admissions and hiring. The government also asked the university to conduct audits of the study body, faculty and leadership on their views about diversity.
A letter addressed the University President Harvard implied that the institution had failed to curb antisemitism on campus during the Gaza war, when students held protests against Israeli actions. Students on campuses of other major universities also staged similar demonstrations, and have been asked by the Administration to reform their policies to check antisemitism.
However, Harvard President Alan Garber rejected the demands, declaring the university would not compromise on its freedom.
“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber said.
“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” he stated in a letter written to the Harvard community
Harvard is one of the richest institutions of higher learning in the world with a $53.2 billion in endowment grants. Last year, Harvard used $2.4 billion from its as part of $6.4 billion operating budget.
In response, the U.S. Department of Education noted that the letter from Garber “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.”
A White House spokesman Harrison Fields said that President Trump was “working to Make Higher Education Great Again by ending unchecked anti-Semitism and ensuring federal taxpayer dollars do not fund Harvard’s support of dangerous racial discrimination or racially motivated violence.”
Garber said Harvard has already has instituted reforms to address antisemitism. He said many of the government’s demands don’t relate to antisemitism alleged that they are an attempt to regulate the “intellectual conditions” at the University.
He suggested that stopping funds for the university exceeds the government’s authority under Title VI, which prohibits discrimination against students based on their race, color or national origin.
