Harvard hit with US$2.2 billion freeze after defying Trump
[NEW YORK] The Trump administration followed through on its threat to pull federal funding from Harvard University hours after the oldest and richest US college refused to agree to a list of government demands.
The government froze US$2.2 billion of multi-year grants to Harvard, according to the Joint Task Force to combat antisemitism, following a defiant message from the school’s president Alan Garber that it won’t “surrender its independence or its constitutional rights.”
Harvard’s statement “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 wrote on Monday (Apr 14).
The Trump administration last month said it was scrutinising as much as US$9 billion in federal grants and contracts to Harvard as part of its efforts to combat antisemitism on US campuses. The school had emerged as a target for the White House as the government sought changes at the nation’s elite colleges, which were roiled by pro-Palestinian student protests after the Oct 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and the Jewish state’s retaliatory response in Gaza.
Harvard had previously signalled it would work with the administration to combat antisemitism on campus, such as tightening disciplinary procedures, but Garber said the latest demands were unacceptable.
Garber posted on the school’s website that the administration demanded expanded terms late on Friday that went beyond prior requests in exchange for maintaining federal funding. These included reforming its governance, ending diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, changes to its admissions and hiring and curbing the “power” of certain students, faculty and administrators because of their ideological views.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
“It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner,” Garber wrote. “Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”
The Trump Administration in February created the multi-agency task force to “root out antisemitism” and announced it would visit 10 college campuses that experienced incidents of antisemitism, including Harvard and Columbia.
The demands on Harvard were more severe than those at Columbia University. After the Trump administration said it was freezing US$400 million in federal funding for Columbia, the school agreed to ban masks, expand campus police powers and appoint a senior vice provost to oversee the Middle East, South Asian and African Studies department.
“Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government,” the school’s lawyers – Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and King & Spalding – wrote in a letter Monday to US agencies including the Department of Education. BLOOMBERG
Share with us your feedback on BT's products and services
