Harvard University is pushing back against the Trump administration’s threats to cut off billions in federal funding — and it’s not backing down.
In a statement Monday, Harvard President Alan Garber rejected a list of demands from Washington that would require the school to overhaul protest rules and scale back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
“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 in a message to the Harvard community.
The Trump administration issued the demands last week, claiming the school has not done enough to stop antisemitism on campus. It’s part of a wider campaign by the White House targeting elite universities after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.
But Harvard says this is about control, not campus safety. In a letter from its attorneys to the government, the university accused federal officials of trying to trample constitutional rights.
The letter says the administration is attempting to violate the First Amendment and “invade university freedoms long recognized by the Supreme Court.”
“Harvard remains open to dialogue about what the university has done, and is planning to do, to improve the experience of every member of its community,” the letter states. “But Harvard is not prepared to agree to demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.”
The university emphasized that it has already taken action to address antisemitism — and will continue to — but said it won’t let politicians decide how the school is run.
“Fighting antisemitism on campus,” Garber said, “will not be achieved by assertions of power, unmoored from the law, to control teaching and learning at Harvard and to dictate how we operate.”
The standoff follows a similar situation at Columbia University, which accepted the administration’s demands in hopes of regaining access to $400 million in frozen federal funds. But even after complying, the government didn’t return the money — and cut even more.
Now, the Trump administration has opened an investigation into Harvard’s $9 billion in federal contracts.
Still, the message from Harvard is clear: It won’t trade its independence for funding.
