Trump’s administration on Monday tried to force Harvard University back on the negotiating table by informing Nation’s oldest and richest college that it would not be eligible for new federal grants.
This decision was broadcast in a controversial letter to Alan M. Garber, Harvard’s president, from Linda McMahon, secretary of education, who threw the school for “devastating mismanagement”.
“This letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek grants by the federal government, since no one will be provided,” Ms McMahon writes in the letter.
It was the first major response from the administration since Harvard sued to challenge the government’s decision to reduce the billions of dollars in funding for research, after the university defied the demands for interventional supervision.
An employee of the Department of Education, who informed reporters about the letter before his release said Harvard’s eligibility of research grants depends on his ability to first address the anti -Semitic concerns on the anti -Semitic Excellence ‘, while employing relatively few conservative teachers.
In a statement on Monday night, a Harvard spokesman said the letter showed that the administration “doubled in requirements that would impose an unprecedented and inappropriate control of the University of Harvard and would have cold consequences for higher education”.
The statement suggested that it would be illegal to withhold the funds in the way Ms. McMahon described.
“Harvard will continue to comply with law, promote and encourage respect for the diversity of view and fight anti -Semitism in our community,” the statement said. “Harvard will also continue to defend the defense of the illegal government aimed at oppression of research and innovation that make Americans safer and safer.”
The statement maintained Harvard’s harsh stance on administration and came days after the university said there was no “legal basis” behind President Trump’s threat to recall the status of taxes.
The letter of three -page Ms McMahon, which developed the use of all capital letters to emphasize the words, which is overflowing with well -known complaints from Mr Trump and other conservative critics of Harvard. Missive said the college “made a mockery of this country’s higher education system”. He accused the University of “Ugly Racism”, said “humiliating plagiarism scandals” and popped into the university leadership.
“At the best possible, a university will have to fulfill the highest ideals of our nation and enlighten the thousands of students walking through its wonderful gates,” McMahon wrote. “But Harvard has betrayed his ideal.”
In addition to the tone of Ms McMahon’s letter, the federal government’s threat on Monday suggested that the government changed its tactic against elite universities. Administration’s first blows to leading schools strip the existing grants by universities – a dramatic step, but what also set the prospect of judicial challenges, especially given the rush of funding cuts.
Harvard created his pending lawsuit against the government both around the first amendment and the law on administrative procedure, which strictly restricts the way federal services operate, after the administration suspended more than $ 2 billion in funding.
However, university leaders across the country are privately afraid of a more normal attack on research that would be more difficult, though not necessarily impossible, to challenge. The ban on a grant against Harvard or any other particular school could still invite the differences – but a deliberate procedure, some higher education officials, would be more difficult to resist in court.
Ever since he returned to the White House, Mr Trump has led to an attack on the nation’s elite universities, which his administration considers hostile to the Conservatives and the intention of perpetuating liberalism.
No university in the country, however, has greater yields with the government than Harvard.
Last month, Trump’s administration sent to Harvard a list of claims including control teachers for plagiarism, referring to the federal government any international students accused of misconduct and appointment of an external supervisor to make sure they were “different”.
The administration stated that the letter containing these requirements was accidentally sent, but the race continued to escalate. Harvard sued the administration, accusing the government of trying to exercise “unprecedented and inappropriate control”. Dr. Garber said the consequences of government actions would be “serious and long -term”.
Under a system that is part of American life since World War II, Harvard, as well as other top research institutions, is based on federal money to support many of his works.
In the budgetary year of 2024, funding funded dollars funded about 11 % of Harvard’s revenue or about $ 687 million. And although Harvard’s donation is worth more than $ 53 billion, much of this money is limited, limiting the way the university can spend. A constant freezing in new grants could release economic haze for Harvard, which has already made emergency plans and is looking for money through bond markets.
Mrs McMahon made a point of reporting Harvard’s wealth in her letter Monday, describing the university as a “initial start” for a time without federal grant money.
Much of the donation, he told Dr. Garber, “it became possible by the fact that you live in the walls and benefits from the well -secured prosperity provided by the United States of America and the free market system that you teach your students to despise.”
