USA Trump administration freezes billions for elite Harvard University
In the dispute over the change of course it is demanding at universities, the US government is withholding billions in funding from the private elite university Harvard.
15.04.2025, 06:28
15.04.2025, 06:29
SDA
The move was justified with alleged disregard for civil rights and insufficient efforts to combat anti-Semitism at the renowned university, which refuses to fulfill a number of the government's demands. In total, US President Donald Trump had 2.2 billion US dollars (1.9 billion euros) in multi-year grants and 60 million dollars in multi-year government contracts with Harvard put on hold.
The government sent a letter on Friday to the university, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, demanding several changes and asking it to make various commitments. The letter required the university to report foreign students who violate conduct rules to federal authorities, to review diversity of opinion among students and staff, and to stop admitting students and hiring staff based on diversity criteria.
The Harvard management had previously rejected the demands. "No government - regardless of which party is in power - should dictate what private universities may teach, whom they may admit and hire, and what areas of study and research they may pursue," reads a letter from University President Alan Garber. The university will not give up its independence and constitutional rights.
Universities in the government's sights
Trump's government is cracking down on critics and unpopular opinions or values that it sees as belonging to the left-liberal spectrum. Universities have also been targeted - for example because of diversity programs that are intended to counteract historical discrimination against blacks, women and other disadvantaged groups. The pro-Palestinian protests at the country's universities last year in the wake of the Gaza war also aroused the displeasure of the Trump camp.
Other elite universities, such as New York's Columbia University, have already made concessions following threats from Washington - and have also come in for criticism. Former US President Barack Obama, for example, recently called on universities to use their endowments or cut costs instead of preventing the loss of funding by meeting Trump's demands.
Harvard President Garber wrote in his response to the government's letter that freedom of thought and research, and the government's longstanding commitment to respect and protect them, is what enabled universities to contribute to a free society in the first place. Referring to the alleged lack of action against anti-Semitism, Garber replied that the letter made it clear that there was no intention to work with the university to combat anti-Semitism "in a cooperative and constructive way".
