Trump administration freezes $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard over
campus activism
[April 15, 2025]
By MICHAEL CASEY
BOSTON (AP) — The federal government says it’s freezing more than $2.2
billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University,
after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s
demands to limit activism on campus.
The hold on Harvard's funding marks the seventh time President Donald
Trump's administration has taken the step at one of the nation’s most
elite colleges, in an attempt to force compliance with Trump's political
agenda. Six of the seven schools are in the Ivy League.
In a letter to Harvard Friday, Trump's administration had called for
broad government and leadership reforms at the university, as well as
changes to its admissions policies. It also demanded the university
audit views of diversity on campus, and stop recognizing some student
clubs.
The federal government said almost $9 billion in grants and contracts in
total were at risk if Harvard did not comply.
On Monday, Harvard President Alan Garber said the university would not
bend to the government's demands.
“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its
constitutional rights,” Garber said in a letter to the Harvard
community. “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.”
Hours later, the government froze billions in Harvard's federal funding.
The first university targeted by the Trump administration was Columbia,
which acquiesced to the government’s demands under the threat of
billions of dollars in cuts. The administration also has paused federal
funding for the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Princeton, Cornell
and Northwestern.
Trump's administration has normalized the extraordinary step of
withholding federal money to pressure major academic institutions to
comply with the president's political agenda and to influence campus
policy. The administration has argued universities allowed antisemitism
to go unchecked at campus protests last year against Israel's war in
Gaza.
Harvard, Garber said, already has made extensive reforms to address
antisemitism. He said many of the government's demands don't relate to
antisemitism, but instead are an attempt to regulate the “intellectual
conditions” at Harvard.
Withholding federal funding from Harvard, one of the nation's top
research universities in science and medicine, “risks not only the
health and well-being of millions of individuals but also the economic
security and vitality of our nation.” It also violates the university's
First Amendment rights and exceeds the government's authority under
Title VI, which prohibits discrimination against students based on their
race, color or national origin, Garber said.
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Hundreds of demonstrators gather on Cambridge Common during a rally
at the historic park in Cambridge, Mass., Saturday, April 12, 2025,
calling on Harvard University to resist what organizers described as
attempts by President Trump to influence the institution. (Erin
Clark/The Boston Globe via AP, File)
The government's demands included that Harvard institute what it
called “merit-based” admissions and hiring policies and conduct an
audit of the study body, faculty and leadership on their views about
diversity. The administration also called for a ban on face masks at
Harvard — an apparent target of pro-Palestinian campus protesters —
and pressured the university to stop recognizing or funding “any
student group or club that endorses or promotes criminal activity,
illegal violence, or illegal harassment.”
Harvard's defiance, the federal antisemitism task force said Monday,
"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.
“The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent
years is unacceptable. The harassment of Jewish students is
intolerable.”
Trump has promised a more aggressive approach against antisemitism
on campus, accusing former President Joe Biden of letting schools
off the hook. Trump's administration has opened new investigations
at colleges and detained and deported several foreign students with
ties to pro-Palestinian protests.
The demands from the Trump administration had prompted a group of
Harvard alumni to write to university leaders calling for it to
“legally contest and refuse to comply with unlawful demands that
threaten academic freedom and university self-governance.”
“Harvard stood up today for the integrity, values, and freedoms that
serve as the foundation of higher education,” said Anurima Bhargava,
one of the alumni behind the letter. "Harvard reminded the world
that learning, innovation and transformative growth will not yield
to bullying and authoritarian whims.”
The government's pressure on Harvard also sparked a protest over the
weekend from the campus community and residents of Cambridge and a
lawsuit from the American Association of University Professors on
Friday challenging the cuts.
In their lawsuit, plaintiffs argue that the Trump administration has
failed to follow steps required under Title VI before it starts
cutting funds, including giving notice of the cuts to both the
university and Congress.
“These sweeping yet indeterminate demands are not remedies targeting
the causes of any determination of noncompliance with federal law.
Instead, they overtly seek to impose on Harvard University political
views and policy preferences advanced by the Trump administration
and commit the University to punishing disfavored speech,”
plaintiffs wrote.
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