Trump administration freezes about $2.3 billion in funding to Harvard after University defies Trump’s demands Today World News

Demonstrators rally on Cambridge Common in a protest organized by the City of Cambridge calling on Harvard leadership to resist interference at the university by the federal government in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.on April 12, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The U.S. Department of Education said on Monday it was freezing about $2.3 billion in federal funds to Harvard University over the school’s decision to fight White House demands, including that it shut down diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Harvard University announced Monday (April 14, 2025) that it won’t comply with a list of demands from the Trump administration as part of its campaign against antisemitism, which could put almost $9 billion in funding at risk.

In a letter to Harvard Friday, the administration called for broad government and leadership reforms, a requirement that Harvard institute what it calls “merit-based” admissions and hiring policies as well as conduct an audit of the study body, faculty and leadership on their views about diversity.

“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges – that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws,” said a department task force on combating antisemitism in a statement.

The task force said it was freezing $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contract value to Harvard.

The demands, which are an update from an earlier letter, also call for a ban on face masks — which appeared to target pro-Palestinian protesters — and suspending any students who occupied university buildings during the protests.

They also want the University to stop recognizing or funding “any student group or club that endorses or promotes criminal activity, illegal violence, or illegal harassment” and to overhaul the admissions process to bar any international students “hostile to the American values” or who are “supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism.”

Harvard President Alan Garber, in a letter to the Harvard community Monday, said the demands violated the University’s First Amendment rights and “exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI,” which prohibits discrimination against students based on their race, color or national origin.

“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,” Garber wrote, adding that the University had taken extensive reforms to address antisemitism.

“These ends will not be achieved by assertions of power, unmoored from the law, to control teaching and learning at Harvard and to dictate how we operate,” he wrote. “The work of addressing our shortcomings, fulfilling our commitments, and embodying our values is ours to define and undertake as a community.”

A spokesperson for the Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Harvard was “right to resist.”

“The Trump administration is making unprecedented demands of universities aimed at undermining or even destroying these vital institutions,” Schumer said in a statement. “Universities must do more to fight antisemitism on campus, but the administration should not use it as an excuse for a broad and extra-legal attack on these institutions.”

But Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Harvard graduate and a New York Republican who grilled university presidents in a series of House hearings over antisemitism on campuses, called for defunding the school. “Harvard University has rightfully earned its place as the epitome of the moral and academic rot in higher education,” she said in a statement.

The demands of Harvard are part of a broader push of using taxpayer dollars to pressure major academic institutions to comply with President Donald Trump’s political agenda and to influence campus policy. The administration has also argued that universities allowed what it considered to be antisemitism to go unchecked at campus protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza; the schools deny it.

Harvard is one of several Ivy League schools targeted in a pressure campaign by the administration, which also has paused federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, and Princeton to force compliance with its agenda. Harvard’s demand letter is similar to the one that prompted changes at Columbia University under the threat of billions of dollars in cuts.

The demands from the Trump administration prompted a group of alumni to write to university leaders calling for it to “legally contest and refuse to comply with unlawful demands that threaten academic freedom and university self-governance.”

“Harvard stood up today for the integrity, values, and freedoms that serve as the foundation of higher education,” said Anurima Bhargava, one of the alumni behind the letter. “Harvard reminded the world that learning, innovation and transformative growth will not yield to bullying and authoritarian whims.”

It also sparked a protest over the weekend from members of the Harvard community and from residents of Cambridge and a lawsuit from the American Association of University Professors on Friday challenging the cuts.

In their lawsuit, plaintiffs argue that the Trump administration has failed to follow steps required under Title VI before it starts cutting funds, which include finding that the university was not complying and giving notice of the cuts to both the university and Congress.

“These sweeping yet indeterminate demands are not remedies targeting the causes of any determination of noncompliance with federal law. Instead, they overtly seek to impose on Harvard University political views and policy preferences advanced by the Trump administration and commit the University to punishing disfavored speech,” plaintiffs wrote.