The Trump administration is 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, officials announced Monday.
The latest develop in the feud between Harvard and the Trump administration was shared in a scathing public letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon to the university’s president — Alan Garber. The letter lays out a list of ways the Trump administration believes Harvard has run afoul of federal law.
It also states that, in response to the university’s continued rejection of the administration’s calls for Harvard to submit to increased government control, end its diversity programs and increase efforts to crackdown on campus anti-semitism, the federal education department will not award the university new grants.
“Receiving such taxpayer funds is a privilege, not a right. Yet instead of using these funds to advance the education of its students, Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law,” McMahon wrote.
In a Monday night statement, the university characterized the freezing of new grants as the Trump administration “doubling down on demands that would impose unprecedented and improper control over Harvard University and would have chilling implications for higher education.” It also called the move an illegal and retaliatory action that withholds funding for “lifesaving research and innovation.”
“Harvard will continue to comply with the law, promote and encourage respect for viewpoint diversity, and combat antisemitism in our community. Harvard will also continue to defend against illegal government overreach aimed at stifling research and innovation that make Americans safer and more secure,” the statement reads.
The freezing of new grants to Harvard is the Trump administration’s latest retaliatory move against the university. It has already asked that Harvard’s tax-exempt status be revoked and frozen $2.2 billion in existing grants set to go to the university.
The letter
The secretary began the letter by accusing the university of making “a mockery of this country’s higher education system” by inviting foreign students who “engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America” to its campus.
“Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country—and why is there so much HATE?” she wrote.
McMahon further criticized Harvard for adding a new introductory math course in March that The Harvard Crimson reported is “aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students.”
“Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected?” she questioned.
The secretary then attacked Harvard for hiring a former president who resigned amid plagiarism allegations last year, hiring former Democratic mayors such as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot as teachers and for having former Democratic Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker in a senior position on one of its two governing boards. McMahon further accused Pritzker of mismanaging Harvard’s financial resources and using it for “political advocacy.”
Finally, the secretary alleged that the university is engaging in “ugly racism” throughout its undergraduate and graduate programs. She accused it of failing to abide by last year’s Supreme Court decision that found that race-based affirmative action for college admissions goes against the constitution and reiterated allegations of racial bias at the university’s legal journal.
“The above concerns are only a fraction of the long list of Harvard’s consistent violations of its own legal duties,” she wrote.
The university will now have to operate as a private institution, relying primarily on its multi-billion dollar endowment and donations from its “large base of wealthy alumni,” McMahon said.
“You have an approximately $53 billion head start, much of which was made possible by the fact that you are living within the walls of, and benefiting from, the prosperity secured by the United States of America and its free-market system you teach your students to despise,” she wrote.
