Harvard snubs Donald Trump on campus protests, faces $2.2 billion funding cut

The US government cut over $2.2 billion funding to Harvard University after it snubbed President Donald Trump for its demands over campus protests and policy changes on diversity – part of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the US that the new administration has abolished. 

A Department of Education task force on combating antisemitism said in a statement on Monday, April 14, that it was freezing $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contract value to Harvard University.

“Harvard's statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation's most prestigious universities and colleges -- that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws,” the federal government letter read.

The development comes as the Trump administration moves to cut federal spending of dozens of university – University of Pennsylvania, Brown, and Princeton – accused of allowing protests against Israel and thereby, letting antisemitism go unchecked on the university campus, and letting DEI programs flourish.

How did Harvard snub Trump?

In a public letter, Harvard President Alan Garber wrote that if the university accepts the demands made by the Department of Education, it would allow the federal government to “control” the Harvard community and threaten “values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge.”

Alan Garber said no federal government, irrespective of the party in power, should dictate private universities what they teach, admit or hire on the campus.

Also Read | University of Michigan Scraps DEI Program Amid Trump Pressure

He said, “No government - regardless of which party is in power - should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” he said.

"These ends will not be achieved by assertions of power, unmoored from the law, to control teaching and learning at Harvard and to dictate how we operate. The work of addressing our shortcomings, fulfilling our commitments, and embodying our values is ours to define and undertake as a community,” Alan Garber wrote.