Trump’s demands of Harvard have only grown. This is where they stand
The Trump administration's fight with Harvard University continues to escalate.
Seeking vast reforms to admissions, discipline and management policies at the prestigious university, federal officials issued a list of demands to school leaders earlier this month, warning Harvard could risk losing up to $9 billion in federal funding if it were uncooperative.
In response, the university said it would not comply with what school President Alan Garber called an edict that went "beyond the power of the federal government."
Federal officials fired back last week, freezing $2.2 billion in federal grants to the school.
The administration's demands have since only expanded, all while federal officials reportedly move to withdraw $1 billion more in funding from the school.
"Harvard is a disgrace," Trump said last week.
Harvard, in turn, filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday to protect funding for its school and affiliates, including Mass General Brigham and Boston Children's Hospital.
"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 in a letter to the school community last week.
Ever-expanding demands on Harvard
The initial demands for Harvard came early this month from a Trump administration antisemitism task force, purportedly formed in the name of addressing patterns of discrimination that spread at the university amid Israel's war with Hamas.
Harvard was a hotspot of protests spurred by the war. Like many other schools, students at times last year took over parts of the campus lawn, forming encampments that drew national attention. Amid the wave of protests, Harvard's critics said the school failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment.
At risk of losing federal dollars, the administration in its initial demands to Harvard ordered adminisrators to shutter diversity, equity and inclusion programs, review programs that "fuel antisemitic harassment," make changes to address "bias, improve viewpoint diversity and end ideological capture" on campus, and adopt merit-based admissions and hiring policies to end preferences based on race, color or national origin.
The other demands included:
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Reform disciplinary policies and institute a comprehensive mask ban on campus, with medical and religious exemptions, as long as identification is always displayed, and a clarified time, place and manner policy.
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Harvard also would have had to review antisemitic rule violations since Oct. 7, 2023, and report them to the government.
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Student groups "held accountable for violations of Harvard policy"
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Improve organizational structure to clarify authority and accountability to empower leaders who will implement changes.
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Cooperate with law enforcement.
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Comply with reporting requirements for foreign investments.
April 11 Trump administration letter
The government expanded on its demands for changes to Harvard's leadership structure, admissions and hiring in an April 11 letter to the school, which the university published alongside a message from Garber and a response to the administration by the school's lawyers.
The demands, which the school rejected , included required government audits of the viewpoints of Harvard's students, faculty and staff, and orders to reduce the power held by some students, faculty and administrators because of their political views.
In his letter to the school community, Garber wrote that the funding cuts threatened "life-changing" scientific advancements, from treatments for Alzheimer's disease and diabetes to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and engineering, that would affect the health and wellbeing of millions of people and the "economic security and vitality of our nation."
Garber also said that Harvard embraced its fight against antisemitism, which he said he had experienced while serving as president, but that the mission "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."
Threats to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status
A day later, the Trump administration announced a freeze on $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard.
Since then, the administration has used the vast reach of the executive branch to pressure the school and demand a growing body of information from every angle.
The administration reportedly requested that a top official at the Internal Revenue Service rescind the university's tax exemption. In a statement to MassLive, the university said the move had "no legal basis."
Demands for records regarding foreign students
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security also ordered Harvard to submit detailed records of "illegal and violent activities" by foreign student visa holders before the end of the month, or it would lose a key certification allowing international students to attend Harvard.
About 27% of Harvard's undergraduate and graduate students are international.
Demand for Harvard's financial records
The Department of Education also requested records from the university on its investments, gifts and contracts from foreign sources, which Harvard and other schools are required by law to disclose if they rise above a certain value.
Harvard said it had already provided that information to the government annually, per the law.
Information about international researchers, faculty and students
Among other requests, the administration also sought the names and information of visiting researchers, students and faculty at Harvard who are from foreign countries or affiliated with foreign governments.
On Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights requested drafts of any reports written by Harvard University's antisemitism task force and information on who authored and edited the documents, according to the Free Press.
Harvard will not 'relinquish its constitutional rights'
Garber has pledged that Harvard "will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights," and the university has said neither it nor any other private school can allow a takeover by the federal government.
The government's actions over recent weeks "threaten Harvard's academic independence and place at risk critical lifesaving and pathbreaking research that occurs on its campus," the school wrote in its lawsuit filed Monday.
It accused the administration of attempting to punish the school for defending its constitutional rights.
Since Harvard rejected the government's demands, the lawsuit read, federal officials "only ratcheted up cuts to funding, investigations and threats that will hurt students from every state in the country and around the world, as well as research that improves the lives of millions of Americans."
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Read the original article on MassLive .
