The Ivy League school will become the first US university to violate the demands of the Trump administration after protests on the pro-Palestinian campus.
Harvard rejected a request from President Donald Trump’s administration to allow the university to control what it described as a conservative government portraying it as a dangerous leftist.
Within hours of Harvard’s rise up on Monday, the Trump administration announced it would freeze $2.3 billion in federal funding for Ivy League schools.
The funding freeze comes after the Trump administration said last month it was considering a $9 billion in federal contracts and grants to Harvard as part of a crackdown on what it says is anti-Semitism that erupted on university campuses during the last 18 months of pro-Palestinian and anti-Gaza war protests.
Freeze issued an open letter that Harvard President Alan Gerber calls the Trump administration’s demands “trying to control Harvard,” and threatens the school’s “value as a private institution dedicated to the pursuit, production and dissemination of knowledge.”
He said such interference was “unprecedented” and “beyond the power of the federal government,” including reporting code violations that reject government requests, reforming governance and leadership, its diversity, the cancellation of the Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program, and changes to employment and admissions policies, particularly for international students.
“No matter which party is in power, we should not decide what private universities can teach, who can be recognized and hired, or which areas of learning and research can be pursued,” Gerber’s letter continued.
In a written statement, the U.S. Department of Education’s Joint Task Force on Fighting Anti-Semitism said that Gerber’s letter “reinforces the mindset of endemic and troubling qualifications at the most prestigious universities and universities in our country. Federal investment is not responsible for supporting civil rights laws.”
Patty Calhane, a correspondent for Al Jazeera in Washington, DC, noted that Harvard University is not the first targeted institution, but that it “sounds rebellious” and even shows that “they are willing to fight it in court.”
“So it’s a very big shift from what we saw from other universities, but if anyone can do that, it’s Harvard,” Calhane said.
The Trump administration has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds for numerous universities, pressing institutions to make policy changes, citing that it cannot fight anti-Semitism on campus.
Columbia University was stripped of its $400 million grant and contract on March 7 after it allegedly allowed the Trump administration to “relentless violence, threats and anti-Semitic harassment” on campus.
While visas for hundreds of other students have been cancelled, deportation procedures have been launched for several foreign students who have been detained.