(The Center Square) – Harvard University said Monday it will not comply with a set of demands from the Trump administration in order to receive federal funding. Those demands including ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as well as reforming programs that fuel antisemitism.
“We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement,” Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a message to the school’s community.
“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber wrote.
When asked for comment, neither Harvard’s Office of the President nor Harvard media relations responded by the time of publishing.
The agreement the Trump administration proposed to Harvard involved discontinuing DEI practices and programs, implementing merit-based hiring and admissions policies, and reforming programs with “egregious records of antisemitism or other bias,” as outlined in an April 11 letter.
These changes among others must be made in order to maintain a “financial relationship with the federal government.”
“Harvard has in recent years failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment,” the letter stated.
“We appreciate your expression of commitment to repairing those failures and welcome your collaboration in restoring the University to its promise,” the letter said, explaining that its contents are “an agreement in principle” if Harvard finds the terms acceptable.
After the U.S. Department of Education – in the effort to eliminate antisemitism – announced in late March a review of the nearly $9 billion in federal funding Harvard received, Garber wrote in a message that the school would “engage with members of the federal government’s task force to combat antisemitism to ensure that they have a full account of the work we have done and the actions we will take going forward to combat antisemitism.”
The university “fully embrace[s] the important goal of combatting antisemitism,” Garber wrote, while outlining Harvard’s various reforms that were made to combat antisemitism.
The Trump administration sent a letter to Harvard on April 3 that – like its April 11 successor – demanded the school review programs that “fuel antisemitism,” end DEI, and implement merit-based policies in order to receive federal funding.
“It is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure that all recipients [of federal funding] are responsible stewards of taxpayer funds,” the April 3 letter stated.
Garber wrote in his message concerning the April 14 letter that Harvard does not “take lightly [its] moral duty to fight antisemitism.”
Garber also wrote that he believes the Trump administration’s demands are “unprecedented” and “the administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government.”
“It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI,” Garber wrote.
However, the withholding of federal funding until conditions related to DEI and merit-based policies are met is in line with the Department of Education’s Dear Colleague letter – that stated race-based decisions in education are unlawful and noncompliant schools may face loss of federal funding – as well as several of Trump’s executive orders terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion.
When it was announced in March that $400 million in federal funding would be revoked from Columbia due to antisemitism, the school soon complied with preconditions laid out by the Trump administration, according to an Education Department news release.
Columbia’s preconditions were mainly related to antisemitism and certain policies that concern protests, according to the letter it received.
When asked for comment, the Department of Education did not respond by the time of publishing.
