Trump punishes Harvard and freezes $2.2 billion in grants

BarcelonaDonald Trump declares war on Harvard. The US administration has announced it is freezing $2.2 billion in federal funding for the prestigious university. This is a punishment after the institution refused to end its diversity programs and refused to monitor the ideological orientation of its foreign students, among other government demands, in addition to being accused of not doing enough to combat antisemitism on its campus. According to the New York Times, the measure also leaves a $60 million contract up in the air.

Harvard assured this Monday 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 can teach, who it must admit or hire, or what areas of study or research can be pursued," Harvard President Alan Garber stressed in a note to the university's members.

Along the same lines, lawyers for the university have sent a letter to members of the so-called Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, created by President Trump through an executive order, in which they assert that the university is willing to eradicate antisemitism but "is not prepared to accept demands that go beyond the village."

Among the demands the aforementioned group made at Harvard were to share its hiring data with the Trump administration, provide admissions data sorted by race and national origin, close all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and review programs that have "egregious records of antisemitism." Regarding the latter demand, they also urged the prestigious university to subject certain departments and programs to an external audit.

Harvard's stand has been applauded by former President Barack Obama. "Harvard has set an example for other institutions of higher education: rejecting an illegal and fraudulent attempt to stifle academic freedom [...]. We hope other institutions will follow suit," he wrote to X. Harvard is not the first university to have had to confront this Trump administration group, which had already cut funding—with the 0-0. In that case, the institution ended up accepting a series of government requirements in order to avoid losing funding.