Rejecting the demands, Harvard’s President Alan Garber said in a statement on Monday that in recent weeks, the federal government “has threatened its partnerships with several universities.”
The Trump administration is freezing $2.2 billion in federal funds to Harvard University after the institution rejected a list of demands that included changes to governance and audits of departments that “most fuel antisemitic harassment.”
In a five-page letter on Friday, the White House said the university has, in recent years, “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.”
The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. https://t.co/5k5t9RYYC2
— Harvard University (@Harvard) April 14, 2025
The letter listed ten categories of “provisions as the basis for an agreement in principle that will maintain Harvard’s financial relationship with the federal government.”
This included:
- Governance and Leadership Reforms
- Merit-Based Admissions Reform
- International Admissions Reform. This is “to prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including students supportive of terrorism or antisemitism.”
- Reforming Programs with Egregious Records of Antisemitism or Other Bias. The University was expected to “commission an external party, which shall satisfy the federal government as to its competence and good faith, to audit those programs and departments that most fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture.” The external party’s report was to “include information as to individual faculty members who discriminated against Jewish or Israeli students or incited students to violate Harvard’s rules following October 7.”
- Student Discipline Reform and Accountability, which included “immediate intervention and stoppage of disruptions or deplatforming, including by the Harvard police when necessary to stop a disruption or deplatforming.” This category also demanded the implementation of “a comprehensive mask ban with serious and immediate penalties for violation, not less than suspension.” The University was also expected to “investigate and carry out meaningful discipline for all violations” during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years, including the Harvard Business School protest of October 2023, the University Hall sit-in of November 2023, and the spring encampment of 2024. This must include “permanently expelling the students involved in the October 18 assault of an Israeli Harvard Business School student, and suspending students involved in occupying university buildings, as warranted by the facts of individual cases.”
The university was expected to report on changes by no later than June 30, 2025, and every quarter thereafter at least until the end of 2028, when all demands were expected to be met.
Harvard was also to disclose the “source and purpose” of all foreign funds and also “report all requested immigration and related information to the United States Department of Homeland Security.”
Accusations of Antisemitism
Rejecting the demands, Harvard’s President Alan Garber said in a statement on Monday that in recent weeks, the federal government “has threatened its partnerships with several universities, including Harvard, over accusations of antisemitism on our campuses.”
Garber said that late on Friday night, the US administration issued an updated and expanded list of demands, warning that Harvard “must comply if we intend to ‘maintain [our] financial relationship with the federal government.’”
Graduation Day at Harvard:
Students raised Palestinian flags in a powerful show of solidarity during the ceremony.
Earlier, Harvard defied Trump administration pressure to change policy, despite threats to withhold nearly $9B in federal funding. pic.twitter.com/SzGrO1DV5V
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) April 15, 2025
“It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner,” he stated.
“Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard,” he added.
He said the demands included “requirements to ‘audit’ the viewpoints of our student body, faculty, staff, and to ‘reduc[e] the power’ of certain students, faculty, and administrators targeted because of their ideological views.”
“We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement. The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber stated.
Violates First Amendment
The university president emphasized that the administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government.
“It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI. And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge,” Garber noted.
The Trump administration is targeting international students on visas who have expressed solidarity with Palestine. Here’s what’s happening and what legal advisers suggest to do if ICE knocks on your door. #Trump #Rubio #ICE #MahmoudKhalil pic.twitter.com/4A0tRwwTMG
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) April 15, 2025
“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,” he stated.
‘Harassment of Jewish Students’
In response, the US administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism released a statement announcing “a freeze on $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60M in multi-year contract value to Harvard University.”
“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges – that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws,” the statement noted.
It said that the “disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable, adding that the “harassment of Jewish students is intolerable.”
The statement added that it was time “for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support.”
Clampdown on Students
In 2024, protests led by students erupted at universities across the US against the government’s support for Israel in its ongoing genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip that has, to date, killed over 50,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children.
Thousands were detained during the protests, which also called for universities to divest from Israel.
The US administration has begun clamping down on students involved in the campus protests. Among those detained is Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate, who was involved in the protests at the university, which sparked protests at campuses elsewhere.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
The only reason this is happening is because Trump, a.k.a., Dondolf Twitler, was paid off by the Zionists. He accepted money to do their bidding. Why is that not being called a bribe? This is literally fascism, authoritarianism. We The People do not have to accept this! and there are plenty of Jewish people, who aren’t Zionists, standing there protesting. How are they antisemitic? This is the ZioNazis doing what they do best. Fake Jew privilege 101. They’re killing babies, and occupying someone else’s territory. Now we’re forced to be ok with that? Nope! Just Say No!