Harvard says it won't 'surrender' to US President Trump's demands
Lawyers for Harvard University said on Monday that the Ivy League institution will not comply with the list of demands sent on Friday by US President Donald Trump's administration.
A letter on Monday from the lawyers to the Trump administration, first reported by The Boston Globe, strikes a defiant tone. It says the administration "disregards Harvard's efforts" to tackle antisemitism and any other form of bigotry on campus and is violating university freedoms recognised by the US Supreme Court, adding that the university would not "surrender its independence".
The Trump administration on 3 April sent Harvard a list of demands as part of its crackdown on what it calls antisemitism on campuses across the US, referring to the widespread campus protests against Israel's war on Gaza.
Initially, the Trump administration said it was reviewing $9bn in federal funds and grants. The Trump administration said it would review more than $255.6m in current contracts and $8.7bn in grants spread over multiple years. The statement said the review was to ensure the university was in compliance with federal regulations, including its civil rights responsibilities.
“Harvard has served as a symbol of the American Dream for generations - the pinnacle aspiration for students all over the world to work hard and earn admission to the storied institution,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement at the time.
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“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,” the secretary added. “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.”
Then, on 11 April, members of the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism sent Harvard a letter detailing its expanded demands.
Harvard's lawyers have rejected the ultimatum from the government as unconstitutional.
"The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government," the letter from lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and LLP King & Spalding LLP said.
"Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms as an agreement in principle."
'Unconstitutional'
Harvard's lawyers argue that the government's demands violate the First Amendment (which includes freedom of speech) and "invade freedoms long recognized by the Supreme Court".
"The government’s terms also circumvent Harvard’s statutory rights by requiring unsupported and disruptive remedies for alleged harms that the government has not proven through mandatory processes established by Congress and required by law."
The Trump administration's letter to the university listed the following as areas of reform at Harvard: governance and leadership reforms; merit-based hiring reform; merit-based admissions reform; international admissions reform; viewpoint diversity in admissions and hiring; reforming programmes with egregious records of antisemitism or other bias; discontinuation of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes and policies; student discipline reform and accountability; whistleblower reporting; and protections and transparency and monitoring.
One of the most detailed sections in its letter was the section on reforming programmes over antisemitism or other bias, detailing which university programmes it deemed problematic including, but not limited to the Center for Middle Eastern Studies; the Carr Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School; the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures; and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic.
Harvard is just one of several universities that has been presented with an ultimatum by the Trump administration. Over 6o universities have been told they were under federal review, and several Ivy League schools have already had funding threatened or cancelled.
The Trump administration announced in March that Columbia University would lose $400m in federal grants and contracts over accusations that it has not done enough to combat antisemitism.
A federal task force notified the Ivy League institution that it would conduct “a comprehensive review” of the university’s federal contracts and grants as part of its ongoing investigations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
Four government agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the US General Services Administration, make up the "Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism".
The task force was set up in February following Trump’s executive order, "Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism", signed at the end of January. The Task Force announced last week it would visit ten university campuses which have experienced antisemitic incidents since October 2023, after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel and the subsequent war on Gaza.
In a joint press statement, the agencies said the funding cuts were due to “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students”.
Columbia University has since accepted the administration's demands, including overhauling protest policies, restructuring its Middle East studies programme and adopting the International Holocaust Rememberance Alliance's controversial definition of antisemitism.
Columbia University's acquiescence to demands resulted in the abrupt departure of the university’s interim president, Linda Armstrong, in March.
Princeton University said earlier in April that the US government froze several dozen research grants to the school.
In a statement, Princeton president Chris Eisgruber said government agencies, including NASA and the Defence and Energy departments, notified the university of the move but gave no reasons for the action. Princeton did not provide a dollar value for the grants.
In its letter to the Trump administration, Harvard’s lawyers left the door open to negotiations but closed the door on the ultimatum as it stands.
"Harvard remains open to dialogue about what the university has done, and is planning to do, to improve the experience of every member of its community. But Harvard is not prepared to agree to demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration."
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