(NewsNation) — Harvard University has $9 billion of its federal funding at risk after refusing to comply with the Trump administration’s demands on reforming college campuses.
Some of the demands issued by the Trump administration Friday include limiting on-campus protests and scrapping its DEI initiatives.
Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, issued a statement Monday rejecting the demands and saying that while some of the demands outlined are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority “represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”
The Trump administration then froze $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to the Ivy League school. One of the main issues Harvard was against was an outside audit of its teaching program, similar to one of the demands Columbia University complied with after losing $400 million in funding.
The Trump administration says the list of demands is for the protection of students on campus, saying Harvard has failed to live up to intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.
President Donald Trump responded on Truth Social, saying “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting “Sickness?,” Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”
The White House has gone after several universities under the accusation that they haven’t done enough to combat antisemitism on campus after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Funding has also been paused at the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Princeton, Cornell and Northwestern.