Cheyenne Suarez

Harvard defies Trump demands for policy changes, risking funding

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK, United States - Elite US university Harvard risked billions of dollars in federal funding Monday as it rejected a <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/4/1/trump-threatens-9-b-in-harvard-funding-over-anti-semitism-1021">list of sweeping demands</a> that the Trump administration said are intended to crack down on campus antisemitism.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 &quot;negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.&quot;Campuses across the country were rocked last year by student protests against Israel&#x27;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, a US-designated terrorist group whose deadly attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel sparked the conflict.&quot;Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating anti-Semitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the &#x27;intellectual conditions&#x27; at Harvard,&quot; Garber wrote.<div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/public-service/2025/3/16/harvard-university-offers-122-free-online-courses-1049">Harvard University offers 122 free online courses</a></div>The Department of Education announced in March that it had opened an investigation into 60 colleges and universities for alleged &quot;anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination.&quot;Garber&#x27;s letter came after the administration placed $9 billion in federal funding to Harvard and its affiliates under review, making its first demands.On Friday, the government sent Harvard a much more detailed list, which the university made public, demanding an &quot;audit&quot; of the views of students and faculty.<div> </div><div>- &#x27;Raging anti-Semitism&#x27; -</div>Garber said the school was &quot;open to new information and different perspectives&quot; but would not agree to demands that &quot;go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.&quot;&quot;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,&quot; Garber said.Top Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who was lauded by Trump last year for aggressive questioning of universities over anti-Semitism, called for Harvard to be defunded, calling it &quot;the epitome of the moral and academic rot in higher education.&quot;The New York firebrand Stefanik, seen as one of the most vocal supporters in Congress of Israel and US Jewish causes, accused the university of tolerating &quot;raging anti-Semitism.&quot;Harvard&#x27;s response to the White House&#x27;s demands was in sharp contrast to the approach taken by Columbia University, the epicenter of last year&#x27;s pro-Palestinian protests.The Trump administration cut $400 million in grants to the private New York school, accusing it of failing to protect Jewish students from harassment as protesters rallied against Israel&#x27;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 a leader of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia, Mahmoud Khalil, arresting him and pushing for his deportation.<div>© Agence France-Presse</div>

Elite US university Harvard risked billions of dollars in federal funding Monday as it rejected a <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/4/1/trump-threatens-9-b-in-harvard-funding-over-anti-semitism-1021">list of sweeping demands</a> that the Trump administration said are intended to crack down on campus antisemitism.

Elite US university Harvard risked billions of dollars in federal funding Monday as it rejected a list of sweeping demands that the Trump administration said are intended to crack down on campus antisemitism.