Hours after rejecting a list of demands from the White House to protect freedom of speech among its students, the United States President, Donald Trump, has frozen $2 billion in Federal funds for Harvard University.
The US government suspended this funding after the elite institution rejected about 10 demands from the Trump administration, which it described as a violation of human rights, accusing the White House of trying to “control” its community.
The White House sent a list of demands to Harvard last week, which it said were aimed at combating antisemitism on campus, including changes to governance, recruitment practices, and student admission procedures.
The letter included 10 categories for proposed changes, including reporting students to the federal government who are “hostile” to American values and ensuring each academic department is “viewpoint diverse.”
Trump also ordered the university to take disciplinary action for “violations” that happened during the students’ protests against the war in Gaza and US support for Israel last year.
In explaining its rejection of these demands, Harvard President Alan Garber said the university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights under the First Amendment protecting free speech.
“Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard,” he said.
A professor of history at Harvard, David Armitage, told the newsmen that the school could afford to resist as the richest university in the US, and no price was too high to pay for freedom.
“It’s not an unexpected act of entirely groundless and vengeful activity by the Trump administration, which wants nothing more than to silence freedom of speech,” he said.
In response to the elite university’s refusal to adhere to these rules, the US Education Department on Tuesday said the higher institution had failed to live up to the “intellectual and civil rights conditions” that justify federal investment.
“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges,” the Department of Education said in a statement.
The disruption of learning plaguing campuses is unacceptable, and the harassment of Jewish students is intolerable,” it added.
