 "Harvard sues Trump administration over $ 2.2 billion funding freeze, academic freedom. Reuters")
Harvard University sued the US President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday, marking a major escalation amid an ongoing clash.
Trump has accused top universities of allowing anti-Semitism on campus and has threatened to cut their funding, remove their tax-exempt status, and limit foreign student admissions.
Trump has also freezed on more than USD 2.2 billion in grants after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus.
“This case involves the Government’s efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard,” the Ivy League university said in a lawsuit filed in a Massachusetts federal court that named several other institutions targeted by Trump.
“The Government’s actions flout not just the First Amendment, but also federal laws and regulations,” said the complaint which called Trump’s actions “arbitrary and capricious.”
Trump and his team are allegeing that their actions against universities are a response to what they call widespread “anti-Semitism” and an effort to roll back diversity programs meant to address past discrimination.
They argue that protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, which spread across U.S. college campuses last year, were filled with anti-Semitic messages. In response to these claims, many universities, including Harvard, took action—Harvard reportedly put 23 students on probation and denied degrees to 12 others, according to protest organizers.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsSome institutions, like Columbia University, have accepted less sweeping demands from the Trump administration, which accuses top universities of being too liberal.
On April 11, the Trump administration sent a letter to Harvard demanding major changes to how the university is run. It called for new leadership, changes to admissions, a review of campus diversity policies, and an end to recognition of certain student clubs.
Harvard President Alan Garber refused to accept the demands. Just hours later, the government froze billions of dollars in federal funding to the university.