Harvard University hit with $2.2 billion funding freeze after rejecting Trump’s demands

THE US GOVERNMENT has announced a $2.2 billion funding freeze on Harvard University after the institution said it would defy a list of demands made by the Trump administration.

On 3 April, the US Department of Education sent a letter to Harvard stating that “federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right” and called for changes to its admissions and hiring policies.

This letter called for Harvard to close its Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) programs and claimed that such programs are “illegal”.

On 11 April, the Trump administration sent a further letter to Harvard warning that US government “investment is not an entitlement” and added more demands to its previous letter.

This included demands for governance and hiring reform, international admissions reform, the “immediate” closure of all DEI programs, and “student discipline reform”.

Regarding student discipline reform, the Trump administration called for “meaningful discipline for all violations” during sit-in protests in support of Palestine, as well as “discipline” for students involved in pro-Palestine student groups.

There have been student protests across college campuses in the US against Israel’s war in Gaza, with some resulting in violent clashes involving police and pro-Israel protests.

Trump and other Republicans have accused the students of supporting Hamas.

And under the international admissions reform heading, the Trump administration called for students who hold views “hostile to the American values and institutions” to be barred from Harvard.

The White House claims that the list of demands are designed to fight antisemitism on campus.

Yesterday, Harvard President Alan Garber released a letter stating that Trump’s demands are “not aimed at combating antisemitism” but is instead “direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard”.

Garber said he would not agree to “’audit’ the viewpoints of our student body” and added that he instructed the Trump Administration that Harvard would not agree to their demands.

He said the White House demands were a violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights under the US Constitution and added:

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“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.”

In response to this letter from Harvard’s president, the US Department of Education said that the “harassment of Jewish students is intolerable” and that 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 Education Department then stated that the Joint Task Force to combat anti-Semitism would freeze $2.2 billion in multi-year grants to Harvard, as well as $60m in a multi-year contract value.

Harvard generated an operating surplus of $45 million on a revenue base of $6.5 billion in the last financial year.

The decision by Harvard to defy Trump’s demands was praised by former US president Barack Obama.

Obama said that Harvard had “set an example for other higher-ed institutions” in “rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom”.

“Let’s hope other institutions follow suit,” he added.

US Senator Bernie Sanders also praised Harvard for “refusing to relinquish its constitutional rights to Trump’s authoritarianism”.

He called on other universities to “follow their lead”.

Harvard’s response to the White House’s demands diverged from the approach taken by Columbia University, the epicentre of last year’s pro-Palestinian protests.

The Trump administration cut $400m in grants to the private New York school, accusing it of failing to protect Jewish students from harassment as protesters rallied against Israel’s Gaza offensive.

The school responded by agreeing to reform student disciplinary procedures and hiring 36 officers to expand its security team.

As well as the funding cut, immigration officers have targeted two organizers of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia: Mahmoud Khalil, whom the government is seeking to deport, and Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested yesterday as he attended an interview to become a US citizen.

-With additional reporting from © AFP 2025 

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