It strikes the campaign to protect the campus Donald Trump Harvard University – it is just the beginning
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In early April, US President Donald Trump asked a simple, burning question in the private sector White House Lunch: “What if we never pay them?” It was “they” Harvard UniversityThe “payment” was 9 billion dollars in federal scholarships. According to the New York Times report, Trump’s question was not a report. Two weeks later, $ 2.2 billion was frozen in Harvard’s federal financing.
News leadership
Harvard University – the oldest, richest and strongest college in America – contradicts the White House after a sweeping group of demands from the administration of President Donald Trump, which aims to reshape the elite higher education in its ideological form.
Immediate repercussions: The Trump administration freezed $ 2.2 billion of scholarships and federal contracts, and a battle described by some in the academic circles as the largest federal challenge to the university’s independence for decades.
“The university will not give in its independence or give up its constitutional rights.”.
Harvard or any other private university cannot allow it to be seized by the federal government. Accordingly, Harvard University will not accept government conditions as an agreement in principle.
Harvard responded to the Trump administration
Takbeer: Trump’s supervisor demands
By August 2025, the university must adopt and implement admission policies based on merit and stop all preferences on the basis of race, color, national origin, or agents, during its university program, individually senior studies program, each of its vocational schools, and other programs. This adoption and implementation should be solid and appear through structural changes and employees. All admission data is shared with the federal government and is subject to a comprehensive review by the federal government.
Trump management message to Harvard
Trump’s assault on higher education is not new – but it does not seem like this before. With the support of a working group to combat anti -Semitism, the Trump team benefits from federal research to force ideological reforms on elite universities. These include:
- Get rid of diversity, fair and inclusive programs (Dei)
- Setting admission and employment policies “merit”
- Carry out for ideological bias between students and faculty members
- The collections of students, which are considered hostile to Jewish students or accused of “illegal harassment”
- Stop recognizing protest groups and even banning protest -related face covers
This is followed by months of intensive protests on the campus on the Israeli war in Gaza, many of which participated in student groups in support of the Palestinian who clashed with the police and charged the rhetoric of anti -Semitism.
While the University of Colombia has accepted similar conditions under the threat of a loss of $ 400 million, Harvard He refused – to become the highest goal of the administration.
Harvard’s position
In a letter sent by the Power’s Lawyer Queen Emmanuel Orkharrt, Sullivan, King and Spalg, Harvard University explained its website: “Harvard University is still open to dialogue about what the university did, and plans to do it, to improve the experience of each member of its community.
President Garbar indicated that although Harvard had made “permanent and strong” reforms to combat anti -Semitism – including the status of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee to monitor and cut relations with Birzeit University in the West Bank – most of the administration’s demands go beyond those goals.
“Although some of the demands set by the government aim to combat anti -Semitism, the majority represents the direct government organization of” intellectual conditions “at Harvard University.”
The rich endowment, the poor money: Why is Harvard University not just writing a check
- Closed funds: 70 % of Harvard’s gifts are restricted by the terms of the donors – distinctive with specific programs and cannot be prejudiced for public use.
- Limited flexibilityOnly 20 % of the estimated funds, and even those that often come with chains related to schools or initiatives.
- Federal financing is still importantFederal funds constitute about 16 % of the Harvard -$ 700 million budget per year.
- OperationalHarvard University has already carried out the freezing of employment and took advantage of the bond market for $ 450 million, and confirms that the pressure is real.
- Funding is not subject to missIt is not possible to simply redirect the endowment boxes to cover frozen research losses or grants.
- Political risks, not financial alone: The threat is not only related to money – it is related to control, precedent and Harvard’s ability to rule.
What they say
The response was starkly divided along the partisan and ideological lines.
Harvard’s support
- “I have never seen this degree of government infiltration, and the infringement of academic decisions-no such thing,” Lee S. Bolinger, former Colombia president, told New York Foundation.
- The governor of Massachusetts, Mora Haley praised the university “to defend education and freedom by standing against a Brazini attempt by the Trump administration of bullying in schools.”
- Former Harvard University President Larry Samars described it as the “right position”.
- The graduates and faculty members gathered, with a collective filing suit that the administration argues by violating legal procedures and academic freedom.
- “Harvard reminded the world that learning, innovation and transformational growth will not result in bullying and authoritarian importance,” said Anurima Bahrgava, a supporter of Harvard and civil rights.
The attacks from the right
- MP Elise Stefanick: “It is time to completely cut off American taxpayer financing for this institution that failed to raise its founding slogan, Veritas.”
- The Anti -Semitism Department of the Trump Harvard Administration accused of showing a “worrying mental mentality”.
- “We want to return them a generation or generation,” conservative activist Christopher Rovo told NYT.
Anti -cultural
Playing book in Trump administration is aggressive and improvisation. It started with the University of Colombia, which approved federal requirements after a reduction of $ 400 million of financing. Since then, the administration has been partially suspended or completely research financing in Princeton, Cornell, Northwest and Berron and the University of Pennsylvania. This approach was coordinated by an ideologically strict group in Washington.
According to the NYT report, Stephen MillerThe Deputy Chief of Staff of Trump Policy, and activist Christopher Rovo defended the use of financial pressure “to seize them [elite universities] Return a generation or two. “The broader strategy?
The administration argues that it responds to anti -Semitism that is not penetrated on the campus. But the demands go beyond that. It includes ideological audits of departments, banning facial covers (which are seen as reprimanding protesters supporting Palestinians), and solving students’ groups that are considered unacceptable politically.
“This is no longer about anti -Semitism,” Garper wrote. “The majority [of demands] It represents the direct government organization of “intellectual conditions” at Harvard University. “
Management sees things differently. The work group wrote in response to the university challenge: “Harvard’s statement today enhances the worrying merit mentality.” “The harassment of Jewish students is unbearable.”
Attachment to the knees: Trump campaign so far
- Colombia: lost $ 400 million, agreed to policy changes.
- Between: she lost $ 175 million, in part for the support of transgender athletes.
- Princeton, northwest, Cornell, Brown: Frozen Contracts.
- Harvard: Facing the biggest threat – a possible loss of $ 9 billion in total financing.
- The Ministry of Education has opened investigations into 60 universities, indicating that this is the beginning only.
What next
Harvard is already tightening her belt:
- Imposition of freezing in March
- Re -introducing the bond market, collecting $ 450 million of tax -exempt debt
- Monitor donor repercussions, after gifts decreased more than $ 150 million in the past fiscal year
But the laws of donor intention limit the amount of gifts that can be re -customized to connect the Federal deficiency. A university source told Axios that Harvard can only “maneuver around the margins” of the budget without creating a legal reaction or reputation.
At the same time, the lawsuits of the faculty and allies at Harvard University argue that the administration’s actions violate the sixth address and the first amendment, and failed to follow the legal procedures required to reduce federal funds.
The bottom line
Harvard may remain – but it will not escape without change. University endowment is not a silver bullet. The battle with Trump forces Harvard to uncomfortable differentials, strategic reduction, and general political warfare rarely viewed from Ivory Tower.
(With inputs of agencies)
