The administration of the American president Donald Trump reduced $ 450 million in additional subsidies from Harvard University, in the midst of an ongoing quarrel on anti -Semitism, presidential control and the limits of academic freedom.
On Tuesday, a joint working group assembled under Trump accused Harvard, the oldest university in the country, of perpetrating a “longtime policy and a discrimination practice on the basis of the race”.
“The Harvard campus, formerly a symbol of academic prestige, has become a reproductive ground for the signaling and discrimination of virtue. It is not leadership; it is cowardice. And it is not academic freedom; it is institutional priority,” said the working group in a press release.
“By prioritizing appeasement on responsibility, institutional leaders lost the school’s complaint to the support of taxpayers.”
The elimination of additional $ 450 million in grants came in addition to more than $ 2.2 billion in federal funds that have already been suspended last week, added the working group.
The quarrel between the president and Harvard – a prestigious Ivy League campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts – started in March, when Trump sought to impose new rules and regulations on the best schools that hosted pro -Palestinian demonstrations during last year.
Trump called such “illegal” demonstrations and accused participants in anti -Semitism. But students’ protest students described their actions as a peaceful response to the War of Israel in Gaza, which aroused concerns about human rights violations, including genocide.
Columbia University was initially a centerpiece of the efforts of the Trump administration. The New York City School had seen the first major increase in the solidarity of Palestine increase on its lawn, which served as a plan for similar demonstrations in the world. He also saw a series of mass arrests overnight.
In March, one of Columbia’s protest leaders, Mahmoud Khalil, was the first foreign student to be arrested and revoked his status as a legal immigration as part of Trump’s campaign to punish the demonstrators. And when Trump threatened to draw $ 400 million from subsidies and research contracts, the school agreed to submit to a list of requests to restore funding.
The requests included the adoption of a formal definition of anti -Semitism, the strengthening of campus security and the establishment of one of its university departments – focused on the studies of the Middle East, Africa and South Asia – under the supervision of an external authority.
The defenders of freedom of expression qualified the concessions of Columbia to capitulate in Trump, who, according to them, sought to erode academic freedom and the views of silence with which he does not agree.
On April 11, his administration published another list of Harvard requests which went even further. In his words, Harvard should have reorganized his disciplinary system, eliminate his diversity initiatives and accept an external audit of the programs deemed anti -Semitic.
Requests have also forced Harvard to accept “structural and staff changes” which would promote “diversity from a point of view” – a term left ambiguous. But criticisms argued that it was a way for Trump to impose his values and priorities at school by shaping his hiring and admission practices.
Harvard was at the center of the controversies surrounding his admissions in the past. In 2023, for example, the Supreme Court judged that the consideration by Harvard of the race in the admissions of students – through a process called positive action – violated the equal protection clause of the American Constitution.
Tuesday’s letter referred to this court decision by arguing that “Harvard University has failed to face omnipresent racial discrimination and the anti -Semitic harassment that rages on its campus”.
A pair of reports in April, created by the own working groups of Harvard University, also found that there were cases of anti-muslim and anti-Jewish violence on campus following the War of Israel in Gaza, a problem of division in American politics.
In the end, on April 14, Harvard president Alan Garber rejected requests from the Trump administration, arguing that they were proof of surpassing government.
“No government – whatever the ruling party – should dictate what private universities can teach, that they can admit and hire, and what areas of study and research they can continue,” Garber wrote in his response.
But Trump continued to put pressure on the campus, in particular by threatening to revoke his tax exemption status. Democrats and other criticisms have warned that it would be illegal for the president to influence the decisions of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with regard to individual taxpayers, such as the University.
Under Trump, the Ministry of Internal Security also threatened to intervene for foreign students to register for university if Harvard does not give documents relating to pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Monday, Garber, president of Harvard, wrote a response to the Trump’s Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, defending the commitment of his campus towards freedom of expression while also addressing the spectrum of anti -Semitism.
“We share common ground on a certain number of critical questions, in particular the importance of putting an end to anti -Semitism and other fanatisms on the campus. Like you, I believe that Harvard must promote an academic environment which encourages freedom of thought and expression, and that we must adopt a multiplicity of points of view,” read his letter.
But, he added, Harvard’s efforts to create a fair learning environment were “undermined and threatened” by the “overcoming” of the Trump administration.
“Harvard will not give up his central principles and legally protected for fear of reprisals unfounded by the federal government,” said Garber.
“I have to refute your assertion that Harvard is a partisan institution. It is neither republican nor democratic. It is not an arm or another political party. It will never be. “
