Trump’s war on universities escalates as Harvard rejects funding blackmail

Harvard University has publicly rejected a series of demands from the Trump administration that threatened to withhold nearly $9 billion in federal funding unless the university agreed to overhaul its governance, admissions, student discipline, and diversity policies.

In a strongly worded letter to the university community on April 14, quoted by the Financial Times, Harvard President Alan Garber condemned the demands as an attempt at “direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard,” asserting that the university will not compromise its constitutional rights or academic independence.

Garber disclosed that the administration sent an “updated and expanded list of demands” on Friday night, along with a warning that failure to comply would jeopardize Harvard’s financial relationship with the federal government.

“We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement,” Garber wrote. “The University will not negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.”

Although some of the conditions were framed as measures to combat antisemitism, Garber argued that “the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.” The university’s legal team contended the administration’s demands violate the First Amendment, infringe on university autonomy, and bypass legally required procedures established by Congress.

The government’s proposed conditions included:

• Restructuring Harvard’s governance and admissions to prevent enrollment of international students allegedly “hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence.”

• Ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs.

• Implementing “meaningful” disciplinary actions in response to protests on campus over the past two academic years.

• Expelling students allegedly involved in an assault on an Israeli Harvard Business School student.

The move has drawn legal pushback. A group of Harvard professors has filed a lawsuit against the administration over the threat to withhold funding. Harvard is now the first major US university to publicly refuse such demands, setting a precedent for others facing similar pressure. Federal grants have already been frozen for seven other universities, including Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to penalize higher education institutions over what he calls “culture war” issues, particularly their diversity initiatives.

By Tamilla Hasanova