The government says the funding freeze is suspected of the university’s alleged failure to address anti-Semitism on campus.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says it will end $60 million in federal grants to Harvard University, further escalating the ongoing feud between President Tsutaprit Trump’s administration over ivy negligence, presidential control and the limitations of academic freedom.
“HHS has concluded multiple multi-year grant awards as Harvard University failed to address anti-Semite harassment and racism.
Discrimination on campus is “unacceptable,” adding that “federal funds must support institutions that protect all students.”
HHS has taken critical action in favour of civil rights in higher education. HHS has concluded multiple multi-year grant awards as Harvard University failed to address anti-Semitic harassment and racism.
– HHS.GOV (@HHSGOV) May 20, 2025
The Trump administration has already frozen more than $2.2 billion with federal grants to Harvard.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon also announced earlier this month in a letter to Harvard that the university would not receive public funds for research because it had “ock ha ha” on higher education.
“Harvard is no longer a publicly funded institution, instead operating as a privately funded institution, which can use its enormous donations to raise funds from large bases of wealthy alumni,” McMahon wrote in the letter.
Harvard sued the administration, alleging that the funding freeze violated the First Amendment and federal law.
Harvard President Alan Gerber announced last week that the university will use its own $250 million in funding to support research.
The feud between President Harvard and Harvard, the well-known Ivy League campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, began in March when Trump sought to impose new rules and regulations on top schools around the country who have played host to pro-Palestinian protests over the past year.
Trump called such protests “illegal” and denounced participants as anti-Semitic. However, student protest leaders have described their actions as a peaceful response to Israeli war in Gaza, which has elicited concerns about human rights abuses, including genocide.
The Trump administration announced its first funding freeze in April. Harvard rejected the administration’s string of demands to tackle anti-Semitism suspicions, and said it would expose it to excessive government control. The demand included revamping the disciplinary system, eliminating its diversity initiative, and agreeing to an external audit of programs deemed anti-Semitic by the administration.
Trump and prominent conservatives in the US have accused Harvard and other universities of spreading extreme left-wing views and suffocating right-wing views.