Harvard University Rejects Trump Administration’s Demands For Policy Changes

Harvard has lost access to over $2 billion in federal funding after it dismissed demands to change hiring, admissions, and other policies

The Trump administration has suspended more than $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and a $60 million contract from Harvard University after it refused to comply with a list of demands from the federal government that the school deems unlawful.

Harvard is the first university to openly reject the administration’s requirements, and is now among others resisting the Trump administration’s interference in higher education. 

The government’s intervention has also set policies that have revoked many international students’ visas — this recently affected a student at The Juilliard School, whose visa was terminated for reasons “unclear at this time.” 

According to The New York Times, the administration’s demands of Harvard included requests to reduce the power of students and faculty members over the university’s affairs; report foreign students who commit conduct violations immediately to federal authorities; and bring in an outside party to ensure that each academic department is “viewpoint diverse,” (generally referred as seeking a range of political views, including conservative perspectives). 

More demands were to conduct plagiarism checks on all current and prospective faculty members; share all hiring and admissions data with the Trump administration; immediately shut down all diversity, equity and inclusion-related programming; and overhaul academic programs that have “egregious records on antisemitism.”

“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,” Harvard’s president Alan Garber wrote in a statement to the university. 

“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” he added. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.”

Government officials have now frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds for research at universities across the country and alleged that it is investigating numerous schools as it aims to remove diversity efforts and “rampant antisemitism” on campuses. 

After the Trump administration’s March announcement that it was examining around $256 million in federal contracts for Harvard (and an additional $8.7 billion of grants), over 800 Harvard faculty members signed a letter urging the university to “mount a coordinated opposition to these anti-democratic attacks.”

Other schools affected by the cuts to funding include Cornell University and Northwestern University, which had $1 billion and $790 million suspended by the government, respectively, reported NPR.

The Trump administration also removed $400 million in federal funds from Columbia University, which later agreed to major concessions demanded by the government, including creating a new security force of 36 “special officers” with the authority to arrest and remove people from campus.

Previously, Harvard had encountered its own criticisms from the community after it hoped to placate Trump by hiring a lobbying firm with close ties to the president and pushing out the faculty leaders of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

“Harvard's failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination — all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry — has put its reputation in serious jeopardy,” wrote the U.S. Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon. “Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus.”