Trump administration threatens further sanctions in escalating fight
with Harvard
[September 20, 2025]
By MORIAH BALINGIT
The Trump
administration escalated its fight with Harvard University on Friday,
placing the Ivy League school under extra financial oversight and
threatening sanctions if it does not provide additional data on its
admissions practices.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the department was placing
Harvard under “heightened cash monitoring,” forcing the school to use
its own money to pay out financial aid for students and then seek
reimbursement from the government.
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People take photos near a John Harvard statue, left, on the Harvard
University campus, Jan. 2, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven
Senne, File) |
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She also threatened “further enforcement action” if the school
does not turn over records to prove it no longer is considering
race in admissions.
Harvard did not respond to a request for comment.
The moves are part of the administration's crackdown on Harvard
as President Donald Trump seeks to eradicate what he describes
as liberal bias at colleges around the country. Since taking
office, Trump has used the Education Department in unprecedented
ways, cutting federal research grants for schools that do not
accede to his administration's demands and pressing colleges
into paying large cash settlements to end federal
investigations.
At Harvard, the Trump administration cut off $2.6 billion in
federal research funding from the school after it spurned
administration demands for sweeping changes to its governance
and student disciplinary policy.
In a lawsuit filed by Harvard, a federal judge this month
ordered the government to restore the funding, saying the
administration had engaged in “a targeted,
ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier
universities.” On Friday, the Department of Health and Human
Services unfroze $46 million in research funding for Harvard,
the university said.
The Education Department is also investigating Harvard's
admission practices as part of a wider effort to compel
universities to prove that they are not using race to evaluate
applicants. It says Harvard has not met all of its demands for
information about its applicants and admitted students.
A group of students sued Harvard in 2014, alleging that its
admissions policies unfairly disadvantaged white and Asian
students. The case was resolved by the Supreme Court in 2023,
which banned consideration of race in college admissions.
Harvard's finances are also facing new scrutiny. McMahon said
she had concerns over the school's financial well-being because
its federal funding is under threat. Harvard has a $53 billion
endowment, the largest of any university.
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