NEW YORK (AFP) – Elite US university Harvard was hit with a USD2.2 billion freeze in federal funding Monday after rejecting a list of sweeping demands.
The call for changes to its governance, hiring practices and admissions procedures expands on a list Harvard received on April 3, which ordered officials to shut diversity offices and cooperate with immigration authorities for screenings of international students.
Harvard president Alan Garber vowed in a letter to students and faculty to defy the government, insisting that the school would not “negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.”
Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism responded with a statement announcing the USD2.2 billion hold in multi-year grants, plus a freeze on USD60 million in government contracts.
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.
Harvard generated an operating surplus of USD45 million on a revenue base of USD6.5 billion in the last financial year.
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 said.
Harvard’s response to the White House’s demands was in sharp contrast to the approach taken by Columbia University, the epicenter of last year’s pro-Palestinian protests.
The Trump administration cut USD400 million 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 organisers of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia: Mahmoud Khalil, whom the government is seeking to deport, and Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested Monday as he attended an interview to become a US citizen.
