 "With a $53 billion endowment, Harvard is the wealthiest college in the United States. Reuters")
After Columbia, US President Donald Trump is now targeting Harvard.
The Trump administration has threatened the Ivy League institution with a loss of $9 billion in grants.
The development comes weeks after the government froze funding for Columbia University.
But what happened? What do we know?
Let’s take a closer look:
What happened?
As per Bloomberg, Harvard is the wealthiest college in the United States.
It has a $53 billion endowment.
As per The New York Times, the Trump administration on Monday said it is reviewing around $9 billion in federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard.
The regime has claimed that Harvard allowed antisemitism to run riot on its campus in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks on Israel.
The newspaper reported that Harvard and Columbia were among the 10 universities that a federal task force said it was examining over possible antisemitic activity.
Harvard was among the many elite universities that saw demonstrations being held by pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students.
A number of donors including hedge fund investor Bill Ackman and billionaire Len Blavatnik announced they would stop giving to Harvard in wake of the protests against Israel.
Ken Griffin said he would not donate to Harvard until it resumed “its role educating young American men and women to be leaders and problem solvers.”
The government said it is looking at around $256 million in contracts granted to Harvard.
It will also examine around $8.7 billion in what it called “multiyear grant commitments.”
President Trump has aggressively targeted prestigious universities that saw bitter protests sparked by Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, stripping their federal funds and directing immigration officers to deport foreign student demonstrators, including those with green cards.
Mahmoud Khalil, who led anti-Israel protests at Columbia , and Tufts PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, from Turkey, were among those detained and by plainclothes officers.
“While Harvard’s recent actions to curb institutionalized antisemitism — though long overdue — are welcome, there is much more that the university must do to retain the privilege of receiving federal taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars,” Josh Gruenbaum, a senior official at the General Services Administration, was quoted as saying by The New York Times.
“This administration has proven that we will take swift action to hold institutions accountable if they allow antisemitism to fester,” Gruenbaum added. “We will not hesitate to act if Harvard fails to do so.”
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said “Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination – all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry – has put its reputation in serious jeopardy.”
“Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus,” she added.
Trump previously targeted New York’s Columbia University, initially putting $400 million of funding under review, detaining for deportation a graduate student linked to the protests, and seeking to arrest others.
Columbia then announced a package of concessions to the government around defining anti-Semitism, policing protests and oversight for specific academic departments.
They stopped short, however, of meeting some of the more strident demands of the Trump administration, which nonetheless welcomed the Ivy League college’s proposals.
The university’s interim president announced over the weekend that she was stepping down after an outcry by some students and faculty over what they characterized as the school’s acquiescence to the federal demands.
Columbia was the epicenter of anti-Israel protests that broke out on college campuses following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, and Israel’s subsequent incursion into Gaza.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the administration conflates their criticism of U.S. ally Israel’s assault on Gaza with antisemitism and their support for Palestinian rights as sympathy for Hamas.
In March, the Trump administration cut $175 million from the University of Pennsylvania over its transgender sports policies.
“Today’s actions by the Task Force follow a similar ongoing review of Columbia University," said Monday’s official statement.
“That review led to Columbia agreeing to comply with nine preconditions for further negotiations regarding a return of cancelled federal funds.”
What is Harvard saying?
As per The New York Times, Harvard president Alan Garber said the $9 billion likely targeted hospitals affiliated with Harvard’s medical school such as Mass General Brigham, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital.
Bloomberg quoted Garber said that if funding is halted it will stop “life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation.”
“We resolve to take the measures that will move Harvard and its vital mission forward while protecting our community and its academic freedom,” Garber wrote.
He also noted his personal experience with antisemitism.
“I have experienced antisemitism directly, even while serving as president, and I know how damaging it can be to a student who has come to learn and make friends at a college or university,” Garber added.
In addition to targeting funds, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have detained some foreign student protesters in recent weeks and are working to deport them.
The Department of Education in March sent a letter to 60 universities including Harvard warning that it could bring enforcement actions against them under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act if they failed to protect Jewish students on their campuses.
It said antisemitic “eruptions” have disrupted life at elite schools around the country for a year.
What are critics saying?
Critics have slammed the move.
They say that the Trump administration’s campaign is retributive and will have a chilling effect on free speech.
The federal government is also major provider of revenue for American universities through grants for scientific research.
The New York Times quoted Lawrence H Summers, the former Treasury secretary and former Harvard president, called the development “a pretext for going after truth-seeking institutions that are threatening to would-be authoritarians.”
Antisemitism has been a genuine problem at Harvard, Summers added.
“Just because Donald Trump says something doesn’t make it wrong, and Harvard has been way too slow in responding to the antisemitism,” he said. “Harvard has made real errors. But Harvard’s flaws do not remotely justify what is being threatened.”
Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, said, “The administration has clearly found a playbook, and we’re seeing it again.”
Mitchell slammed the “unsubstantiated, amorphous claims of antisemitism against an institution and pre-emptive hostage-taking” tied to funding.
Bloomberg quoted Jeffrey Flier, the former dean of Harvard’s medical school and co-president of the Council on Academic Freedom, as saying that that Harvard needed to change, but that this was “a major threat to academic freedom.”
Instead of going through a lengthy process that allows the Education Department to cut funding from schools that violate civil rights laws, the Trump administration has found quick leverage by pulling contracts and grants.
The tactic is being challenged in a federal lawsuit brought by the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers.
Harvard and other elite universities came into the crosshairs of conservatives in late 2023, when the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology appeared before a congressional committee looking into a rise in antisemitism on campuses.
Former Harvard President Claudine Gay, along with the other school leaders, declined to give a definitive “yes” or “no” answer when asked if calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ codes of conduct regarding bullying and harassment, saying they had to balance it against free-speech protections.
Rights advocates have also raised concerns about Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza. The Trump administration has not yet announced any specific steps to tackle bias against Muslims and Arabs.
With inputs from agencies