Harvard University declared that it would not abide by a number of demands made by the Trump administration, claiming that doing so would essentially hand over control of the private university to a conservative government that is determined to transform higher education. In a prompt move, the government announced that $2.3 billion in federal money would be frozen.
Just hours after Harvard University rejected President Donald Trump’s requests for radical changes to its campus governance and diversity practices, the US Department of Education on Monday froze more than $2 billion in government funding for the university.
Harvard firmly refused to abide by a number of demands made by the Trump administration, claiming that doing so would essentially hand over control of the private university to a conservative government that wants to change higher education. An already high-stakes dispute over academic freedom, campus speech, and the role of government control in institutions was intensified when the administration promptly responded by declaring a freeze of $2.3 billion in federal funding.
Harvard President Alan Garber referred to the requests as a “direct assault on the university’s independence and core values” in a public letter. “What private universities can teach, who they can admit and hire, and what study and inquiry areas they can pursue should not be dictated by any government, regardless of which party is in power,” Garber wrote.