Harvard takes a stand against Trump's culture war

WashingtonHarvard President Claudine Gay was one of the first university leaders to resign under scrutiny from the Republican-led committee investigating the anti-Gaza war protests. Now the university has become the first institution to stand up to Donald Trump's culture war on higher education institutions. The Department of Education has punished Harvard by freezing $2.2 billion in federal funding and suspending $60 million in federal contracts after the school refused to budge from the new administration's campaign to try to control university operations.

Trump's rise to power has intensified the culture war that conservative lobbyists and the Republican Party have been waging against universities for years. At the center of this fight are the Ivy League schools, the country's elite group of universities, which includes Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, among others. The protests against the Gaza war that erupted on many college campuses last spring served as a pretext for Republicans to break the long-standing consensus on the right to protest on campus and academic freedom. Republicans turned chants like "From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free" into a subject of debate, directly labeling them "anti-Semitic."

Accusations of "anti-Semitism" against the protest encampments –in which Jewish students also participated– facilitated the creation of a political framework from which not only the demonstrations were attacked, but also all the principles that have governed the corpus of these university centers for years. The Republicans managed to put pressure on the universities and removed the bosses of three university presidents: Gay, of Harvard; Elizabeth Magill, of the University of Pennsylvania; and Minouche Shafik, of Columbia. The resignations of these three presidents bear the signature of Republican Virginia Foxx, chairwoman of the Education and Labor Committee, which opened investigations into these and other institutions. In fact, Gay's resignation was the work and grace of Elise Stefanik, a task that Trump has rewarded by giving her the position of US ambassador to the UN.

Foxx, who has always targeted Ivy League universities, saw in the accusations of antisemitism an opportunity to shake them. The committee chair has long waged her own battle from her seat against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, which she considers "anti-meritocratic." These same policies, which Republicans now control the White House, have been targeted through executive orders, and she threatens to freeze funding for schools that implement them. However, in the case of Harvard and other universities—which Republicans have also criticized for their progressive policies—they have been attacked on the grounds of not sufficiently combating antisemitism.

Letter exchange

On March 31, the Department of Education notified Harvard that it would review federal grants and contracts. The administration believed the center was not doing enough to combat antisemitism and was also promoting "divisive ideologies"—a.k.a., DEI policies. "Harvard's failure to protect students on campus from antisemitic discrimination—while promoting divisive ideologies over freedom of inquiry—has put its reputation in grave jeopardy. Harvard can right these wrongs and reclaim its character as a campus dedicated to academic excellence and the pursuit of truth, Hon.

In the wake of the investigation, Harvard received a letter from the government on Friday laying out a series of demands if it wanted to retain federal funding. It required it to share hiring data with the Trump administration; provide admissions data sorted by race and national origin; shut down all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; and review programs that have "egregious records of antisemitism." On the latter demand, the prestigious university was also urged to subject certain departments and programs to an external audit.

Pots llegir aquí la carta que va rebre la universitat de Harvard

The list presented at Harvard was similar to the one sent to Columbia University. The New York campus, which was the epicenter of the pro-Palestinian protests, was the first victim of the administration's culture war. The Trump administration not only canceled $400 million in federal grants under accusations of "anti-Semitism," but also made two arrests against activists with legal status in the country for participating in the protests: Mahmmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdaw. The fear campaign against Columbia worked, and the university eventually bowed its head to avoid losing funding. As a result, the university agreed to ban masks at protests, authorize police presence on campus to make arrests, and allow an "academic intervention" in its Middle East department.

On the contrary, Harvard has decided not to give in to demands that violate academic freedom at private institutions and call into question freedom of expression and the right to protest. In a response letter sent this Monday, the university states that it will continue to combat antisemitism on its campus, as it claims it has done until now, but that it will not accept the Trump administration's demands to avoid funding cuts, since they "invade university freedoms long recognized by the Supreme Court." "No government should dictate what a private university may teach, who it may admit or hire, or what areas of study or research may be pursued," writes Harvard President Alan Garber in a note to the university's trustees.

Pots llegir aquí la carta de resposta de la universitat de Harvard al govern Trump

The government's response has been to use brute force and freeze funding, as it had threatened. "Today's statement from Harvard reinforces the troubling mindset endemic to our country's most reputable colleges and universities: the idea that federal investment does not come with a responsibility to comply with civil rights laws," says the statement published by Educació. The department continues to accuse Harvard, without evidence, of "harassing Jewish students" and of a "disruption of learning" affecting the campus. At Columbia, the only thing that has disrupted classes are the arrests of activists and the fear the Trump administration instills among international students that they will be next.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump responded to Harvard's resistance by threatening to eliminate its tax-exempt status. "Perhaps Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status and be considered a political entity if it continues to promote this politically motivated, ideologically motivated, and terrorist-inspired or terrorist-supporting 'disease.' Remember, tax-exempt status is entirely dependent on acting in the public interest!" the mogul wrote.