Harvard will not agree to demands pushed by the Trump administration as a condition for maintaining nearly $9 billion in federal funding, the school’s president said Monday.
In a letter to the campus community, Harvard President Alan Garber said lawyers for the school have informed the Trump administration that Harvard “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”
Federal officials sent an updated, and much more specific, set of demands late Friday to Garber and the Harvard Corporation that the administration says would help combat antisemitism on campus.
Earlier this month, the federal government threatened to pull funding and contracts that would decimate research efforts across the institution and its affiliates if the school didn’t eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programming and cooperate with law enforcement officials.
“The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government,” Garber wrote Monday. “It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI.”
“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 added.
Harvard is the first university to publicly push back against the Trump administration’s demands. Last month, Columbia University found itself in a similar situation and acquiesced to the demands.
In his message to the school community, Garber linked to the feds’ updated list of demands, as well as Harvard attorneys’ response to the government.
He urged Harvard members to read the letter “to gain a fuller understanding of the unprecedented demands being made by the federal government” against Harvard.
Friday’s list of demands expanded upon a prior, vaguer list. Federal officials have requested an audit of all faculty hiring and admissions data starting August until through at least end of 2028, as well as audits of “viewpoint diversity.” The list includes a review of programs the feds claim “most fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture,” and singles out a number of schools and centers including the Divinity School, Graduate School of Education, School of Public Health and Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
The administration also doubled down on its demands over the international student body, demanding that Harvard “reform its recruitment, screening and admissions” of international students by August and “immediately report” to authorities any student who “commits a conduct violation.”
On protest matters, the federal government ordered “a comprehensive mask ban,” the “meaningful discipline” of pro-Palestinian student protesters, plus the expulsion of Harvard graduate students involved in the Oct. 18, 2023 confrontation during a pro-Palestinian protest.
The demand letter was signed by officials from the General Services Administration, Health and Human Services and Department of Education.
In his message, Garber reiterated that the university has taken steps to address antisemitism on campus, and “plan to do much more.” But he said the majority of these demands “represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”
“We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement,” Garber wrote. “The University will not negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.” Later on Monday afternoon, Garber’s letter on the Harvard website was edited to read, “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.” A Harvard spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why it changed the language.
The letter to the federal government was signed by D.C.-based attorneys for the firms Quinn Emanuel and King & Spalding. That letter said the school is “open to dialogue” with the federal administration about measures it has already taken to address the campus experience and future steps.
In an interview, Harvard government professor Ryan Enos applauded Harvard’s response.
“This was a historic moment for Harvard where they had to look and say how will we be remembered in history,” he told WBUR. “And at this moment they’ve done the right thing and the importance of that cannot be overstated.”
Nikolas Bowie, the secretary-treasurer of the Harvard faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors and a Harvard law professor, also praised the university’s response.
“I’m really grateful for Harvard’s leadership to stepping up and recognizing that so long as the Trump administration is going to make unlawful demands of American universities, there’s no limit to what it can demand, and therefore, the only rational response is to say, see you in court,” he said.
On Friday, the Harvard AAUP chapter filed a lawsuit in federal court to block the administration’s review of the school’s federal funding, alleging the investigation impinges on free speech and academic freedom on campus.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org. It was shared as part of the New England News Collaborative.
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