There are few symbols as enduring in American higher education as Harvard University. But today, the prestigious academic institution finds itself in a bitter legal fight not over scholarly ideas but power.
Harvard University has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging it is trying to “gain control of academic decision-making” at the institution.
The university is fighting back against the administration’s threat to review about $9bn in federal funding after Harvard officials refused to comply with a list of demands.
Harvard is specifically looking to halt a freeze on $2.2bn in grants.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration had sent a letter to Harvard with the list of demands, which included changes to its admissions policies, removing recognition of some student clubs, and hiring some new faculty.
The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration has sought to force changes at multiple Ivy League institutions after months of student activism centered on the war in Gaza.
The administration has painted the campus protests are anti-American, and the institutions as liberal and antisemitic, which Harvard’s President, Alan Garber, refuted.
White House spokesperson, Harrison Fields said in a statement that the “gravy train of federal assistance” to institutions like Harvard was coming to an end. “Taxpayer funds are a privilege, and Harvard fails to meet the basic conditions required to access that privilege,” Fields said.
This seems to be more about control. The Trump administration’s demands seem less about improving education and more about bending one of the world’s leading institutions to its political will.
The requested changes read like a checklist of conservative grievances: reshape who gets admitted, silence student dissent, and insert preferred faculty. It’s a chilling attempt to micromanage a private institution’s inner workings under the guise of “accountability.”
In a letter announcing the university’s decision to reject Trump’s demands, Havard University President, Alan Garber wrote, “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, in a statement, reiterated that the Trump administration had doubled down on its response to the university’s refusal to comply with the administration’s demands.
“The government has, in addition to the initial freeze of $2.2bn in funding, considered taking steps to freeze an additional $1bn in grants, initiated numerous investigations of Harvard’s operations, threatened the education of international students, and announced that it is considering a revocation of Harvard’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
“These actions have stark real-life consequences for patients, students, faculty, staff, researchers, and the standing of American higher education in the world.”
Alan Garber
Last Tuesday, Trump had, in a Truth Social post, called for Harvard, the US’s oldest and wealthiest university and one of the most prestigious in the world, to lose its tax-exempt status.
“Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’ Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”
Donald Trump
Harvard, The First To File Lawsuit
Harvard is the first university to file a lawsuit in response to Trump’s crackdown on top US universities that it says mishandled last year’s pro-Palestinian protests and allowed antisemitism to fester on campuses.
However, protesters, including some Jewish groups, say that their criticism of Israel’s military actions in Gaza is wrongly conflated with antisemitism.
The Trump administration has also paused some funding for universities including Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, Northwestern and Brown over the campus protests.
Harvard has seen student-led protests in recent days calling on the institution to resist interference by the federal government.
Harvard’s lawsuit, filed in Boston, described the research funding freeze as “arbitrary and capricious” and violating its First Amendment rights.
The court documents revealed, “The government has not – and cannot – identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen that aims to save American lives, foster American success, preserve American security, and maintain America’s position as a global leader in innovation.”
The American Council on Education, a nonprofit organisation with more than 1,600 member colleges and universities, supported the legal action by Harvard. “It has been clear for weeks that the administration’s actions violated due process and the rule of law,” it said, adding, “We applaud Harvard for taking this step.”
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