After the Trump administration frozen$ 2.2 billion in grants and$$ 60 million in contracts due to the university’s refusal to adhere to new federal regulations, former US President Barack Obama praised Harvard University for defying what he called a “ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom.”
Obama stated on Tuesday on X:” Harvard has set an example for another higher-ed institutions by rejecting an unconstitutional and ham-handed try to suppress academic freedom while taking concrete steps to ensure that all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of philosophical inquiry, demanding debate, and common respect.” Let’s hope another organizations follow suit.
Following Harvard’s refusal to employ a number of demands stated in an April 3 directive, including changing selecting and admissions policies, helping with emigration screenings for foreign students, and more. The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, which suspended the money, claimed the actions were necessary to ensure institutions upheld legal rights and used tax money properly.
Federal officials demanded radical changes by August 2025 in a text dated April 11 and accused Harvard of breaking civil rights laws and promoting intellectual bias. In recent years, Harvard has failed to live up to the academic and civil rights requirements that warrant federal funding, the notice stated.
Alan Garber, chairman of Harvard, rejected the order. In a people statement, Garber said,” No government should dictate what personal colleges can teach, whom they can admit and get, and what fields of study and examination they can pursue,” regardless of which party is in power. The University won’t give up its right to remain independent or to renounce its legal right.
Nikolas Bowie, a professor at Harvard Law School, echoed Garber’s assertions, calling the requires “nothing quick of authoritarian,” adding that” He is violating the First Amendment right of universities and faculty.”
Following pro-Palestinian demonstrations over Israel’s military activity in Gaza, there are now rising tensions on US schools. Democratic leaders, including Donald Trump, have accused some scholar organizations of collaborating with Hamas, the militant group responsible for the attack on Israel on October 7. Additionally, the Department of Education is now looking into 60 colleges over reported anti-Semitic situations.
Columbia University complied with similar demands, losing$ 400 million in grants after failing to stop anti-Semitic incidents during subsequent protests, despite Harvard standing its surface. Since then, Columbia has improved its administrative procedures and increased safety on campus.
Harvard has argued that national funding should not be used as a leverage to alter scientific principles despite reporting a £45 million surplus on £6.5 billion in revenue last month. Republican member from New York Elise Stefanik applauded the thaw, claiming that elite universities are the source of” a troubling rights mindset.”
In addition, immigration enforcement actions against Colombia-based pro-Palestinian protesters have gotten more severe, with deportation proceedings being brought against scholar officials Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi.
Even read: Trump vs. Harvard, full word of what was said.
