On Monday April 14th, Harvard University rejected demands from the Trump administration that threaten $9 billion in research funding. They are among the numerous universities targeted by the Trump administration in the recent weeks of April. In March, the Department of Education had sent out letters to 60 universities, including Columbia, Northwestern, the University of Michigan, and Tufts, warning them of potential actions for noncompliance with anti-discrimination provisions in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Harvard has since then been experiencing freezes in their research funding.
The Trump administration has pushed for extensive reforms at the university and sought change to its admissions policies. Additionally, they have demanded the university audit views of diversity on campus and stop recognizing some student clubs. Their argument is that universities allowed unregulated campus protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Harvard announced Monday, April 21st that they have filed a lawsuit against the federal freeze on more than $2.2 billion in grants from the Trump administration after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration demands to limit activism on campus. Since freezing federal grants worth billions of dollars is unlawful. Last week, Harvard had rejected the list of demands that the Trump administration said was designed to curb diversity initiatives and fight anti-semitism at school. These attacks on the university for the critical funding partnerships are what makes invaluable research possible for pediatric cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease would be affected.
The withholding of federal funding has violated Harvard’s constitutional rights and they also believe that it’s a “leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard.” International students could also be under this threat from the Trump administration besides the fact that the university has tax exemption status which could also be threatened. Columbia University has agreed to some demands after $400 million of federal funds was being threatened. But the demands to Harvard had included agreeing to government-approved external audits of the university’s curriculum as well as hiring and admission data. Harvard’s response to this was a blistering letter rejecting what was described as a takeover by the federal government. Harvard has stood up to Trump, how long can it last? And will other top universities follow the same route or go under the Trump administration demands.
