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Donald Trump’s administration said it would freeze more than $2.2bn in funding for Harvard University, after it became the first major US higher education institution to publicly resist pressure from the government.
The administration released a statement late on Monday announcing the cuts to the Ivy League university’s federal funding, hours after Harvard rejected what it said was an attempt at “government regulation” of the institution.
“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 multi-federal agency Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said in its statement.
The move by the Trump administration raises the stakes in a deepening confrontation between the White House and elite institutions in the US, and follows funding cuts at other universities the government accuses of inadequately policing antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests in the past two years.
It comes after Harvard’s president Alan Garber on Monday afternoon said he rejected demands made by the administration last week, which he denounced as seeking “direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard”.
Garber said the Trump administration on Friday night sent “an updated and expanded list of demands”, accompanied by a warning that the institution “must comply” in order to maintain its “financial relationship” with the government. The government’s letter expanded on one it had sent Harvard earlier in the month.
“We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement,” Garber said in a letter to the Harvard community published on Monday. “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”
“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,” he added.
In a statement after the cut to funds, Harvard said: “For the government to retreat from these partnerships now risks not only the health and wellbeing of millions of individuals, but also the economic security and vitality of our nation.”
The university’s lawyers argued the government’s demands contravened the US constitution’s First Amendment on free speech, “invade[d] university freedoms”, and “circumvent[ed] Harvard’s statutory rights by requiring unsupported and disruptive remedies for alleged harms that the government has not proven through mandatory processes established by Congress and required by law”.
The Trump administration’s letter made several demands of Harvard, including that the university reform its governance structure and admissions process — in part to prevent admitting international students deemed “hostile to the American values” — and end its diversity, equity and inclusion policies and programmes.
The government also ordered the university to carry out “meaningful” disciplinary action for “violations” that occurred during protests on campus during the past two academic years, and expel students involved in the “assault of an Israeli Harvard Business School student”.
“The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable,” the Joint Task Force said in its statement. “The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable. It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support.”
A group of professors has sued the administration over its threat to withhold funding from Harvard — one of multiple attempts by faculty at elite US universities to push back against Trump’s attacks on their institutions.
The government has frozen federal funds for multiple universities, including Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania.
On the campaign trail Trump promised to fine higher education institutions for their stance on “culture war” issues and their diversity initiatives.
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