Harvard University on Monday rejected demands from the Trump administration as it threatens the school’s federal funding as part of a broader clampdown on higher education.
In a message to the Harvard community from its leadership — and in a corresponding letter from the school’s attorneys to the federal government — the university said that while it is and will continue to engage in reforms, those changes should not be mandated by Washington.
“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,” President Alan Garber said in his message.
The Trump administration on Friday demanded the university change numerous policies, including around protesting and diversity, equity and inclusion programs, to keep federal funding.
The White House has gone after multiple universities, particularly Ivy Leagues, under the accusation the schools have not done enough to combat campus antisemitism after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The demands for Harvard were similar in nature to those given to Columbia University, which chose to agree in an attempt to get back $400 million in frozen funding. But after the concessions, the federal government did not return the funding and in fact has made further cuts to the New York school.
In the letter from Harvard’s lawyers to the administration, it said the federal government was 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. But Harvard is not prepared to agree to demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration,” the letter said.
The Hill has reached out to the White House and the Education Department for comment.
Garber in his message said the university has taken various steps to combat antisemitism and will continue to work on the issue but that the government’s demands go far past that aim.
Fighting antisemitism on campus “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 work of addressing our shortcomings, fulfilling our commitments, and embodying our values is ours to define and undertake as a community,” he said.
The Trump administration, which has been swift to cut funding to multiple other schools, has already opened an investigation into $9 billion it has in federal contracts with Harvard.
The demands of the administration included eliminating DEI, leadership changes, reforms to hiring and admission practices, auditing of certain departments for antisemitism, reforms to student discipline and how student groups can operate and submitting a report to the government every quarter until 2028 on its progress toward set goals.
“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. 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 school’s legal team said in their letter to attorneys in the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services, along with the commissioner of federal acquisition services at the General Services Administration.
A growing list of elite colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University and Northwestern University, have seen millions in federal funding cut off under President Trump, who has long raged against “woke” schools.
For each revocation of funds, the Trump administration has cited some alleged civil rights violation against the school, typically either inaction against antisemitism or institution policies around transgender athletes.
But with the targeted schools so far, the federal government is not going through the usual process, which allows a university to respond to such allegations, typically including time to fix the problem.
“The government’s terms also circumvent Harvard’s statutory rights by requiring unsupported and disruptive remedies for alleged harms that the government has not proven through mandatory processes established by Congress and required by law,” Harvard’s attorneys wrote.
Updated at 3:04 p.m. EDT
