Harvard University will not comply with a list of demands from the Trump administration in exchange for continued federal funding, said Harvard President Alan Garber in a letter to the campus community Monday afternoon.
“I encourage you to read the letter to gain a fuller understanding of the unprecedented demands being made by the federal government to control the Harvard community,” he wrote.
The letter sent to Harvard on Friday is an update to a list of demands sent on April 3, which included the dismantling of diversity programming, banning of masks and “full cooperation” with the Department of Homeland Security. The new letter calls on the university to no longer recognize pro-Palestine student groups, audit the viewpoints of academic programs and expel students involved in a 2023 pro-Palestine protest on the Harvard Business School campus.
“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 wrote.
The government also ordered Harvard to reform its admissions process for international students by screening them for views “supportive of terrorism and antisemitism” and to promptly report those who break university policies to federal authorities.
The list of demands also asked for “reducing the power held by faculty (whether tenured or untenured) and administrators more committed to activism than scholarship” and for Harvard to submit quarterly updates starting in June to document its compliance.
Garber said Harvard informed the administration through its legal team that it would not accept the agreement.
In a statement Monday evening, the U.S. Department of Education’s Joint Task Force to combat anti-Semitism said that Harvard’s response “reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges – that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws.”
The statement went on to say that the task force is freezing “$2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60M in multi-year contract value to Harvard University.”
No further details about the impacted grants were provided.
Some Harvard faculty applauded Garber’s decision. Professor of government Ryan Enos said he was relieved to see the university’s response, noting that it shows Harvard is willing to stand up for its principles.
Enos is one of 800 Harvard faculty who signed a letter calling on the university to actively resist the Trump administration’s demands.
“I do think that that pressure was really important,” Enos said. “In some ways, Columbia [University], because they’re the first ones under attack, that sort of resistance didn’t have a chance to build, and I think it’s really important that Harvard saw what their community demanded of it and responded to that.”
In March, Columbia University agreed to the Trump administration’s demands, including empowering security officers to arrest people and reassigning control of the Middle East Department, in exchange for $400 million in restored federal funding.
The announcement comes two weeks after the Trump administration and three federal agencies launched a review into $9 billion in the school’s federal funding due to allegations of antisemitism.
Boston University professor of law Jonathan Feingold said that the Trump administration has no lawful basis to cut federal funding from Harvard.
“I’m honestly not sure how the Trump administration will respond, but what I would most like to see from Harvard is not to stop here,” Feingold said. “But to announce a much broader alliance with universities across the country that are speaking in unison, saying that we are going to protect each other from these unlawful and anti-democratic attacks.”
Enos said he also believes that Harvard standing up to the Trump administration could make it easier for other institutions to do the same.
“For better or for worse, Harvard is a tremendously important institution in higher education,” Enos said. “This is a really important symbolic step for all of those that have looked for somebody in higher education to stand up.”
On Friday, the American Association of University Professors filed a lawsuit challenging the cuts. In their lawsuit, plaintiffs argue that the Trump administration has failed to follow steps required under Title VI before it starts cutting funds, and giving notice of the cuts to both the university and Congress.
“These sweeping yet indeterminate demands are not remedies targeting the causes of any determination of noncompliance with federal law. Instead, they overtly seek to impose on Harvard University political views and policy preferences advanced by the Trump administration and commit the University to punishing disfavored speech,” plaintiffs wrote.
This story includes reporting from the Associated Press about the American Association of University Professors’ lawsuit.
