The Trump administration has said it is freezing more than $2bn in federal funds for Harvard University, just hours after the elite college rejected a sweeping list of demands from the White House.
“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges,” the Department of Education said in a statement.
The Trump administration sent Harvard a letter on Friday that added to a list of requirements it said were designed to fight antisemitism on campus, including changes to its governance, hiring practices and admissions procedures.
Harvard strongly rejected the demands in a letter on Monday.
“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Harvard’s President Alan Garber said.
He added that the university did not “take lightly” its obligation to fight antisemitism, but said the government was overreaching.
“The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government,” he wrote.
The government’s request “violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights”, “exceeds” its authority and “threatens our values as a private institution”, Garber said.
Shortly after that letter was made public, the education department said it was freezing $2.2bn in grants and $60m in contracts to Harvard.
A department task force on combating antisemitism said federal funding comes “with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws”.
The White House said in its own letter on Friday that Harvard had “in recent years failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment”.
The letter included 10 categories for proposed changes that the White House said were needed in order for Harvard to maintain its “financial relationship with the federal government”.
Some of the changes include: reducing the power held by students and untenured faculty; reporting students to the federal government who are “hostile” to American values, and hiring an external government-approved party to audit programs and departments “that most fuel antisemitic harassment”.
Since re-entering the White House, President Donald Trump has put pressure on universities to curb antisemitism and end diversity practices.
He has accused leading universities of failing to protect Jewish students, as well as having an institutional left-wing bias.
In March, the administration said it was reviewing roughly $256m (£194m) in federal contracts and grants at Harvard, and an additional $8.7bn in multi-year grant commitments.
Harvard professors filed a lawsuit in response, alleging the government was unlawfully attacking freedom of speech and academic freedom.
The White House had previously pulled $400m in federal funding from Columbia University and accused it of failing to fight antisemitism and protect Jewish students on its campus.
When the $400m was pulled, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said: “Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding”.
Shortly after, Columbia agreed to several of the administration’s demands, drawing criticism from some students and faculty.
