Harvard University has become the first U.S. institution to defy the Trump administration’s demands following pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
Shortly after Harvard issued a public letter, the Trump administration announced a freeze on $2.3 billion in federal funding for the Ivy League school.
Ten days prior, the administration claimed that it was reviewing $9 billion in federal contracts and grants to Harvard. This move was sparked by anti-Semitic violence and harassment on college campuses during pro-Palestinian and anti-Gaza War protests that occurred over 18 months.
Following Harvard President Alan Garber’s public letter to the Trump administration, Harvard announced that it would refuse to meet the government’s demands. In this letter, Garber argued that that control is beyond the power of the federal government.
Demonstrators take part in an ‘Emergency Rally: Stand with Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza’, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the US, on October 14, 2023 [Brian Snyder/Reuters]
Reporting foreign students for code violations, changing the university’s governance and leadership, changing its hiring and admission policies, and discontinuing its diversity, equity and inclusion programs were some of the demands of the government. Garber wrote in his letter that these demands were unprecedented.
Garber stressed that no government should dictate what private universities can teach, who they can admit and hire, and which areas of study they can pursue.
The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism of the US Department of Education replied to Garber’s letter. They accused him of having a troubling entitlement mindset was endemic in prestigious universities.
According to Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Washington, DC, Patty Culhane, while not the first institution to be targeted, Harvard is the first to sound defiant and indicate that they may be willing to fight it in court.
Culhane added that if anyone could do it, it’s Harvard.
Other universities have also been frozen out of federal funding by the Trump administration. The institutions were pushed to make policy changes and were accused of failing to combat anti-Semitism on campus.
Columbia University was stripped of $400 million in grants and contracts on March 7 for what the Trump administration alleged was allowing “relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment” on its campus.
Deportation proceedings have begun against several detained foreign students who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while visas for hundreds of other students have been cancelled.
