Why Harvard was willing to risk $9B to fight Trump
Harvard University has stood out among institutions targeted by the administration of President Donald Trump.
Six of the eight Ivy League schools — Brown University , Columbia University , Harvard, Princeton University , Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania — have had funding frozen. Northwestern University has also.
Harvard has put forward a statement that they will not comply with demands .
That was an expensive decision for Harvard, resulting in $2.2 billion in funding that was frozen, with a total of $9 billion in jeopardy .
Harvard President Alan Garber laid out his thinking in a letter to the school community on Monday, in which he provided a link to a newly released letter from the Trump administration from Friday expanding its demands of the university.
The demands laid out government plans to control Harvard and punish dissent.
Among the demands in the government's letter were to allow the government to "audit" the viewpoints of students, faculty and staff and that those departments that were lacking in "viewpoint diversity" — determined by the government — would be "reformed."
"The administration's prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government‚" Garber's letter states. "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."
The government's initial demands , released early in April, purported to focus on fighting antisemitism at Harvard.
Expanded demands submitted to the university on Friday went well beyond that purview.
They included:
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Allowing the government to audit the viewpoints of students, faculty and staff and forcing the university to hire people
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Giving leadership power to those "most devoted" to enacting the changes in the letter, and stripping it away from those who aren't
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Forcing the university to deploy campus police to enact "discipline" on students who disobey policies approved by the government
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Sharing all hiring data with the government, which would be subjected to an audit
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Preventing admission of international students the government deems "hostile" to "American values"
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Discontinuing all diversity, equity and inclusion programs
The five page letter was signed by Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum of the General Services Administration and by attorneys for the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Garber wrote that Harvard is taking accusations of antisemitism seriously, adding that the university has taken many steps to address antisemitism on campus over the past 15 months.
Those include nurturing a thriving culture of open inquiry on campus, respecting free speech and dissent and working together to find ways consistent with the law that supports and respects difference.
"These ends 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," Garber said.
