By AFP
April 15, 2025
Harvard University is the highest profile institution to refuse to bend to President Donald Trump's demands for control - Copyright AFP ADALBERTO ROQUE
Joe Prezioso with Sebastian Smith in Washington
President Donald Trump escalated his war against elite US universities Tuesday with a threat to strip Harvard’s tax-exempt status if the country’s most famous educational establishment refuses to submit to wide-ranging government oversight.
Harvard stands out for defying Trump, in contrast to several other universities and a string of powerful law firms that have folded under intense pressure from the White House in its crackdown on American institutions.
Its president, Alan Garber, said the school would not “negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.”
Tuesday’s threat of a major tax bill comes a day after the freezing of $2.2 billion in federal funding.
The impacts are already being felt on a campus that has produced 162 Nobel prize winners and whose alumni range from Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg to eight US presidents.
The university said one faculty member had just been told to halt her tuberculosis research because of “the broader funding freeze.”
But the mood was defiant.
“I love it. I think it’s amazing. I think more schools across the country need to. It shows that you’re not going to bow down, you’re not going to let free speech be taken,” student Darious Hanson told AFP.
– Anti-Semitism –
Trump posted on social media that non-profit Harvard “should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity” if it does not submit to his demands for the university to change the way it runs itself, including selection of students and authority for professors.
Trump and his White House team have justified their pressure campaign on universities as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled anti-Semitism and support for the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Trump “wants to see Harvard apologize. And Harvard should apologize,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists.
The anti-Semitism allegations are based on controversy at protests against Israel’s war in Gaza that swept across campuses last year.
Columbia University in New York — an epicenter of the protests — stood down last month and agreed to oversight of its Middle Eastern department after being threatened with a loss of $400 million in federal funds.
The White House has also strong-armed dozens of universities and colleges with threats to remove federal funding over their policies meant to encourage racial diversity among students and staff.
The White House has cited similarly ideological goals in its unprecedented crackdown on law firms, pressuring them to volunteer hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of legal work to support issues that Trump supports.
– Harvard defiant –
Harvard, the oldest and wealthiest university in the United States, is now the most prominent institution to resist Trump’s ever-growing bid for control.
The Trump administration is demanding that a wide range of Harvard departments come under outside supervision for potential anti-Semitism. It also seeks to require “viewpoint diversity” in student admissions and choice of professors.
Garber’s insistence that Harvard cannot “allow itself to be taken over by the federal government” sets up a likely long-running, high-profile fight.
Hard-line presidential advisors such as Stephen Miller depict universities as bastions of anti-conservative forces that need to be brought to heel — a message that resonates strongly with Trump’s hard-right anti-elite base.
For Trump’s opponents, the Harvard refusal to bend marks a chance to draw a line in the sand against an authoritarian takeover.
“Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions — rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom,” former president Barack Obama wrote on X. “Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”
Dozens of universities and other stakeholders are separately battling the Trump administration in court over broad research funding cuts that have led to staff layoffs and created deep uncertainty among US academics.
Harvard sees $2.2 billion in funding frozen after defying Trump
By AFP
April 14, 2025
Students from MIT, Harvard University and other schools rally in April 2024 against Israel's military campaign in Gaza - Copyright AFP -
Elite US university Harvard was hit with a $2.2 billion freeze in federal funding Monday after rejecting a list of sweeping demands that the White House said was intended to crack down on campus anti-Semitism.
The call for changes to its governance, hiring practices and admissions procedures expands on a list Harvard received on April 3, which ordered officials to shut diversity offices and cooperate with immigration authorities for screenings of international students.
Harvard president Alan Garber vowed in a letter to students and faculty to defy the government, insisting that the school would not “negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.”
Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism responded with a statement announcing the $2.2 billion hold in multi-year grants, plus a freeze on $60 million in government contracts.
“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,” it said.
“The disruption of 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.”
Campuses across the country were rocked last year by student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, with some resulting in violent clashes involving police and pro-Israel counter-protesters.
Trump and other Republicans have accused the activists of supporting Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group whose deadly attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel sparked the conflict.
The Department of Education announced in March that it had opened an investigation into 60 colleges and universities for alleged “anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination.”
Garber’s letter came after the administration placed $9 billion in federal funding to Harvard and its affiliates under review, making its first demands.
On Friday, the government sent Harvard a much more detailed list demanding an “audit” of the views of students and faculty, which the university made public.
– ‘Raging anti-Semitism’ –
Harvard generated an operating surplus of $45 million on a revenue base of $6.5 billion in the last financial year.
Garber said the school was “open to new information and different perspectives” but would not agree to demands that “go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.”
“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Garber said.
Top Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who was lauded by Trump last year for aggressive questioning of universities over anti-Semitism, called for Harvard to be defunded, calling it “the epitome of the moral and academic rot in higher education.”
The New York firebrand, seen as one of the most vocal supporters in Congress of Israel and US Jewish causes, accused the university of tolerating “raging anti-Semitism.”
Harvard’s response to the White House’s demands was in sharp contrast to the approach taken by Columbia University, the epicenter of last year’s pro-Palestinian protests.
The Trump administration cut $400 million in grants to the private New York school, accusing it of failing to protect Jewish students from harassment as protesters rallied against Israel’s Gaza offensive.
The school responded by agreeing to reform student disciplinary procedures and hiring 36 officers to expand its security team.
As well as the funding cut, immigration officers have targeted two organizers of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia: Mahmoud Khalil, whom the government is seeking to deport, and Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested Monday as he attended an interview to become a US citizen.
By AFP
April 14, 2025
Students from MIT, Harvard University and other schools rally in April 2024 against Israel's military campaign in Gaza - Copyright AFP -
Elite US university Harvard was hit with a $2.2 billion freeze in federal funding Monday after rejecting a list of sweeping demands that the White House said was intended to crack down on campus anti-Semitism.
The call for changes to its governance, hiring practices and admissions procedures expands on a list Harvard received on April 3, which ordered officials to shut diversity offices and cooperate with immigration authorities for screenings of international students.
Harvard president Alan Garber vowed in a letter to students and faculty to defy the government, insisting that the school would not “negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.”
Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism responded with a statement announcing the $2.2 billion hold in multi-year grants, plus a freeze on $60 million in government contracts.
“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,” it said.
“The disruption of 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.”
Campuses across the country were rocked last year by student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, with some resulting in violent clashes involving police and pro-Israel counter-protesters.
Trump and other Republicans have accused the activists of supporting Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group whose deadly attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel sparked the conflict.
The Department of Education announced in March that it had opened an investigation into 60 colleges and universities for alleged “anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination.”
Garber’s letter came after the administration placed $9 billion in federal funding to Harvard and its affiliates under review, making its first demands.
On Friday, the government sent Harvard a much more detailed list demanding an “audit” of the views of students and faculty, which the university made public.
– ‘Raging anti-Semitism’ –
Harvard generated an operating surplus of $45 million on a revenue base of $6.5 billion in the last financial year.
Garber said the school was “open to new information and different perspectives” but would not agree to demands that “go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.”
“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Garber said.
Top Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who was lauded by Trump last year for aggressive questioning of universities over anti-Semitism, called for Harvard to be defunded, calling it “the epitome of the moral and academic rot in higher education.”
The New York firebrand, seen as one of the most vocal supporters in Congress of Israel and US Jewish causes, accused the university of tolerating “raging anti-Semitism.”
Harvard’s response to the White House’s demands was in sharp contrast to the approach taken by Columbia University, the epicenter of last year’s pro-Palestinian protests.
The Trump administration cut $400 million in grants to the private New York school, accusing it of failing to protect Jewish students from harassment as protesters rallied against Israel’s Gaza offensive.
The school responded by agreeing to reform student disciplinary procedures and hiring 36 officers to expand its security team.
As well as the funding cut, immigration officers have targeted two organizers of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia: Mahmoud Khalil, whom the government is seeking to deport, and Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested Monday as he attended an interview to become a US citizen.
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