As Harvard University faces billions of dollars in funding cuts from the federal government, the institution is asking for help through donations to its new Presidential Priorities Fund, according to a Monday email from President Alan Garber.
Some of Harvard’s schools, including its School of Public Health, have even taken to social media to ask for donations.
“The institution entrusted to us now faces challenges unlike any others in our long history,” Garber said in the letter.
Garber said the “independence of higher education in the United States has come under threat” and that the ways people can help are by staying informed by reading his messages, advocating for Harvard and higher education and donating to the university.
The Presidential Priorities Fund “advances the University’s core mission of teaching and research by empowering Harvard’s president with the flexibility to address pressing needs and fresh opportunities as they arise,” according to its website.
Another fund, called the Presidential Fund for Research, focuses on supporting research activities at Harvard.
“I am grateful to everyone who stands with Harvard as we continue to pursue our mission, drive progress, and serve the public good. Now is the time to speak up and lend your support to institutions that have contributed so much to our nation and our world. Your commitment to the University makes a tremendous difference,” Garber said.
Read more: Congressional committees accuse Harvard of working with Chinese Communist Party
The email from Garber comes after a wave of federal research grant terminations at Harvard University, in addition to a $60 million cut in multi-year grants on top of already announced freezes of $450 million and $2.2 billion.
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has also told the institution that the federal government would be barring Harvard University from acquiring new federal grants while the university continues to refuse to comply with the administration’s demands for change on its campus.
President Alan Garber wrote in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon that they share the same “common ground,” but the university “will not surrender its core, legally-protected principles out of fear.”
Garber pushed back on the administration through a lawsuit in April. The institution argues that its constitutional rights had been violated by the government‘s threats to pull billions of dollars in funding if the school didn’t comply with demands for an overhaul.
Following the $450 million announced cuts, the university amended its lawsuit.
“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,” the suit reads.
Due to the federal cuts, Harvard announced that it was committing $250 million of “central funding” to support research impacted by suspended and canceled federal grants.
