Trump administration freezes $2.2 billion in grants to engage in campus radicalism at Harvard University

The federal government said it would freeze more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts after the agency said Monday that it did not comply with Trump’s administration’s demands to restrict campus activism.

In a letter to Harvard on Friday, the government called for extensive government and leadership reforms, “benefit-based” admissions and hiring policies, and an audit of the perceptions of research institutions, faculty and leadership on diversity.

These demands are the latest news from earlier letters, and also demand a ban on face masks, which appears to target pro-Palestine protesters and put pressure on the university to stop acknowledging or funding “any student group or club that recognizes or promotes criminal activities, illegal violence or illegal harassment.”

Harvard President Alan Garber said in a letter unanimous to the Harvard community on the week, that the claims violated the university’s First Amendment rights and exceeded “statutory restrictions on government authority under Title VI” that prohibit discrimination against students based on their race, color or nationality.

“No matter which party in power, no government should decide what private universities can teach, who they can acknowledge and hire, and what areas of study they can pursue,” Garber wrote.

“These purposes will not be able to control Harvard teaching and determine how we operate through claims of power, without claims of law,” he wrote.

“The work of addressing our shortcomings, fulfilling our commitments and embodying our values ​​is what we define and undertake the work of our community.”

The demands made by Harvard University are a broader driver of the use of taxpayer funds to force major academic institutions to comply with U.S. President Donald Trump’s political agenda and influence campus policy. The government also believes that universities allow protests against Israel in the war in Gaza last year during campus protests. The school denies it.

Harvard is one of several Ivy League schools in a government pressure campaign that has also suspended federal funding, including the University of Pennsylvania, Brown and Princeton to force compliance.

Harvard’s letter of demand is similar to one that prompted changes at Columbia University, a threat to billions of dollars in cuts.

The Trump administration’s demand prompted a group of alumni to write letters to university leaders calling for “legitimate competition and refusal to comply with illegal requirements that threaten academic freedom and university autonomy.”

“Today, Harvard is today to be the integrity, values ​​and freedom that is fundamental to higher education,” said Anurima Bhargava, one of the alumni behind the letter. “Harvard reminds the world that learning, innovation and transformative growth will not succumb to bullying and authoritarian whimsicality.”

It also sparked protests from Harvard community members and Cambridge residents, challenging on Friday in a lawsuit by the American Association of University Professors.

The plaintiff argued in his lawsuit that the Trump administration failed to follow the steps required in Chapter 6 before starting to cut funds and notified the cuts to universities and Congress.

“These swift and uncertain requirements are not remedies for determining reasons for not complying with federal law. Instead, they openly seek to impose on Harvard's political views and policy preferences raised by the Trump administration and promised the university to punish unspeakable speech.”