Harvard Refuses To Give In To Trump Administration Demands

Harvard University will not make a deal with the Trump administration after being threatened with the withholding of $9 billion in federal grants, according to a letter sent by university lawyers on Monday.

“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” lawyers Robert Hur and William Burck wrote to Trump administration officials. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms as an agreement in principle.”

The Trump administration has targeted Harvard among dozens of other universities in what it claims is an investigation into “anti-semitism” on campus and so-called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices. In a letter to Harvard President Alan Garber sent on April 11, the administration threatened to withhold grant money if the university did not restructure itself along lines dictated by the administration and with ongoing government oversight.

The changes asked for by the administration included ending all DEI programs, limiting foreign student admissions, requiring “viewpoint” diversity in all programs, and closing departments and teaching units that cannot meet the administration’s demands, banning certain student groups, purging departments or other entities of criticism of Israel and increased penalties for students, among other things.

Harvard’s response noted its commitment to combating so-called antisemitism and provided a list of reforms it made to its rules. It notes that the administration’s letter “disregards Harvard’s efforts and instead presents demands that, in contravention of the First Amendment, invade university freedoms long recognized by the Supreme Court.”

“[The administration’s letter] makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner,” Garber wrote in a public statement on Monday. “Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”

This “goes beyond the power of the federal government,” Garber wrote, by violating the First Amendment and exceeding “the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI,” of the Civil Rights Act.

While the Harvard letter does not state that the university will go to court to fight the administration’s threats, it strongly implies that the law is on the university’s side. It is also notable that the university’s lawyers are both conservatives with ties to Donald Trump. Hur was appointed U.S. Attorney for Maryland by Trump in 2018, and Burck is an outside ethics adviser for Trump’s company and serves on the board of Fox Corporation, the parent of Fox News.

Since taking office, Trump has launched an attack on universities and colleges under the pretexts of combating antisemitism, DEI and transgender rights. The Department of Education has launched dozens of investigations into universities across the country and threatened the withdrawal of hundreds of billions of dollars in research grants that help fund scientific research across the country.

In March, Columbia University became the first school to enter into an agreement with the Trump administration that allowed the government to oversee critical functions of the school, including by placing the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies departments into effective receivership.