The United States government on Monday night said it was freezing more than $2 billion in grants to Harvard University after the school rejected the Trump administration’s demands that it to audit the viewpoints of the student body. The White House said it was intended to crack down on campus antisemitism.
In a statement, the administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced the cuts and called out the nation’s most “prestigious universities and colleges”.
“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,” a statement by the task force read.
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Earlier, the university had made public a letter to students and staff defying a call for changes to its governance, hiring practices and admissions policy from the administration of President Donald Trump.
“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,” the government’s statement further said.
“The Joint Task Force to combat anti-Semitism is announcing a freeze on $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60M in multi-year contract value to Harvard University,” it added.
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In a letter, Harvard president Alan Garber vowed to students and faculty to defy the government, insisting that the school would not “negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights”.
His Garber’s letter came after the administration made its first demands and placed $9 billion in federal funding to Harvard and its affiliates under review.
Later on Friday, the government sent Harvard a detailed list asking for an “audit” of the views of students and faculty, which the university made public.
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Why the scrutiny?
This comes after 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.
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.”
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What did the Harvard president say?
In the letter, 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 added.