Harvard Holds Steady Against Trump Administration’s Policy Requests Despite Potential Loss of Billions in Funding – One America News Network
OAN Staff James Meyers
2:27 PM – Monday, April 14, 2025
Harvard University has pushed back against the Trump administration’s demands, which threaten the institution’s federal funding amounting to over $9 billion.
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In a statement released by the university’s administration on Monday, it affirmed its commitment to ongoing reforms but insisted that such changes should not be imposed by the Trump administration.
“No government — whether from the left or the right — should dictate the curriculum of private universities, control their admissions or hiring processes, or limit the fields of study and investigation they pursue,” stated President Alan Garber.
This development comes after the Trump administration warned more than 100 colleges nationwide of potential funding cuts if they did not adjust their policies. Harvard’s stance marks a significant moment as it becomes the first Ivy League institution to openly reject White House demands in this context.
The proposed measures include the dismantling of Harvard’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, a prohibition on masks during campus protests, reforms in merit-based hiring and admissions, and a reassessment of faculty power viewed as prioritizing activism over academic scholarship.
This latest push for reform is part of a broader effort to address universities that have allowed anti-Semitic protests targeting Jewish students amid the ongoing Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
Garber remarked that most of the demands “represent direct governmental regulation of the intellectual environment at Harvard.”
“No government — irrespective of its political orientation — should dictate the educational framework, admissions criteria, or hiring processes of private institutions,” Garber emphasized.
Garber further emphasized Harvard’s proactive measures to combat anti-Semitism while asserting that the Trump administration’s actions reflect an overreach of authority.
“Addressing anti-Semitism on our campus will not be accomplished through the exercise of authority detached from legal principles to dictate our educational practices and governance. The journey of confronting our challenges, meeting our obligations, and embodying our values is for us as a community to navigate,” he stated.
The Trump administration is currently investigating $9 billion in federal contracts awarded to Harvard University.
With each proposed funding revocation, the government has cited alleged civil rights violations, often attributing these to inadequate action against anti-Semitism and policies related to transgender athletes.
“The government’s conditions also violate Harvard’s legal rights by demanding unsubstantiated and disruptive measures for alleged grievances that the government has failed to prove through the mandatory legal processes established by Congress,” noted Harvard’s legal team.
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