Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Year : 2, Issue: 33
Anadolu: The US Education Department said Monday that it froze nearly $2.3 billion in funding to Harvard University because the school decided to fight White House demands.
“The Joint Task Force to combat anti-Semitism is announcing a freeze on $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60M in multi-year contract value to Harvard University,” it said in a statement.
The statement came after the university vowed Monday to fight reforms demanded by the Trump administration, which threatened to withhold billions of dollars in funding to pressure the nation’s wealthiest university to limit student protests and eliminate diversity programs.
University President Alan Garber said in a letter to the school’s community that while some of the Trump administration’s demands “are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.” That includes a demand to “audit” the views of the student body, faculty, and staff and “reduc(e) the power” of certain individuals because of their ideological views.
Garber said the administration has been informed through the university’s attorneys that Harvard will not accept the agreement it proposed and “will not negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.”
“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 task force said, adding the disruption to learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is “unacceptable.”
“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,” it added.
Harvard’s defiance comes as the Trump administration seeks to force schools to eliminate diversity programs and restrict student-led pro-Palestinian protests.
