Harvard faces funding freeze as Yale faculty asks leadership \u2018to resist and legally challenge any unlawful demands\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barack Obama has come out in support of Harvard<\/a> after the Trump administration<\/a> elected to cut $2bn of its federal grants<\/a> after the Ivy League school in Massachusetts rejected what it said was an attempt at \u201cgovernment regulation\u201d of the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, faculty at Yale University<\/a> \u2013 another prominent Ivy League institution \u2013 has asked its leadership \u201cto resist and legally challenge any unlawful demands that threaten academic freedom and \u2026 self-governance\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A statement from Obama<\/a>, the US president from 2009 to 2017, says: \u201cHarvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions \u2013 rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet\u2019s hope other institutions follow suit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The standoff between some of the US\u2019s most prestigious universities and the federal government deepened overnight on Monday after Harvard rejected elevated demands by Donald Trump\u2019s administration<\/a>, which the president has called an effort to curb antisemitism on campus. Many educators, however, see the demands as a thinly veiled effort to more broadly curb academic freedoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo government \u2013 regardless of which party is in power \u2013 should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,\u201d Harvard\u2019s president, Alan Garber, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump administration<\/a>, through the multi-federal agency joint task force to combat anti-semitism, responded by freezing $2.2bn in multi-year grants and $60m in multi-year contract value to Harvard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Tuesday, Trump himself published a post on his Truth Social platform saying \u201cperhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The intervention by Obama came after 876 faculty members at Yale published a letter to their leadership expressing support for standing up to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe stand together at a crossroads,\u201d the letter read<\/a>. \u201cAmerican universities are facing extraordinary attacks that threaten the bedrock principles of a democratic society, including rights of free expression, association, and academic freedom. We write as one faculty, to ask you to stand with us now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though the letter does not say Harvard specifically, it also asks Yale\u2019s leadership to \u201cwork purposefully and proactively with other colleges and universities in collective defense\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Columbia University in New York, the site of pro-Palestinian protests in 2024, has agreed to partly comply with a series of demands from the Trump administration about how it will handle such demonstrations, academic departments and antisemitism after it received warnings it would lose federal funding, but also defended academic freedoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Princeton in New Jersey has said it has not received a specific list of demands from the government. The university\u2019s president, Christopher Eisgruber, said in an email to the community earlier in April that while the rationale for the administration\u2019s threat to withhold funding was not yet clear, the university \u201cwill comply with the law\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and we will cooperate with the government in combating antisemitism,\u201d Eisgruber added. \u201cPrinceton will also vigorously defend academic freedom and the due process rights of this university.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Trump administration is using the threat of funding cuts as a tactic to force universities to yield to government control over research, teaching, and speech on private campuses. It is flagrantly unlawful,\u201d said a statement from Rachel Goodman, counsel with Protect Democracy who represents the American Association of University Professors in its challenge to the termination of federal funding at Columbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Columbia agreed to a ban on face masks for the purposes of concealing one\u2019s identity, to bar protests inside academic buildings and to review how Middle East studies programs are administered. It also acquiesced to expanding \u201cintellectual diversity\u201d, including by appointing new faculty members to its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stated goal of the Trump administration\u2019s antisemitism taskforce is to \u201croot out antisemitic harassment in schools and on college campuses\u201d. But many believe that is a cover for a range of conservative goals, including eliminating racial quotas in admissions \u2013 and resetting what the administration sees as a far-left bias in academia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are going to choke off the money to schools that aid the Marxist assault on our American heritage and on western civilization itself,\u201d Trump said in 2023. \u201cThe days of subsidizing communist indoctrination in our colleges will soon be over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Tuesday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Trump \u201cwants to see Harvard apologize\u201d for what she called \u201cthe egregious antisemitism that took place on their college campus\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen it comes to Harvard \u2026 the president has been quite clear: they must follow federal law,\u201d Leavitt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In March, the taskforce leader, Leo Terrell, a former Fox News commentator, said: \u201cWe\u2019re going to bankrupt these universities\u201d if they do not \u201cplay ball\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The administration, in total, has frozen or canceled more than $11bn in funding from at least seven universities as part of its effort to end what it calls \u201cideological capture\u201d. At least 300 students, recent graduates and postdoctoral students have had their visas and legal immigration statuses revoked as part of the crackdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Massachusetts<\/a> Institute of Technology president, Sally Kornbluth, said on Monday that nine MIT students had seen their visas revoked over the previous week \u2013 revocations that she said would have a chilling effect on \u201ctop talent\u201d worldwide and would \u201cdamage American competitiveness and scientific leadership for years to come\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n