Tensions between Harvard University and President Donald Trump’s administration grew Monday as the federal government froze over $2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contracts after the Ivy League university refused to comply with its demands.
The move comes after the Trump administration announced investigations into universities across the country, citing concerns with antisemitism or racial preferences, threatening billions of dollars in funding.
“We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement,” Harvard President Alan M. Garber said in a statement Monday.
After the administration announced the freezing of the funds, Harvard stood by its statement which added, “The University will not surrender its independence or its constitutional rights.”
Harvard is one of the first universities to push back against the Trump administration’s demands as schools grapple with the best way to handle a threat that puts so many of their students and employees at risk.
Here is how universities across the country are responding to the White House’s demands.
Columbia University
Columbia University in New York City was one of the first to be targeted by the Trump administration.
On March 7, the administration announced that $400 million in funding was being pulled from the university due to the school’s failure to stop antisemitism after protests on campus last year put it in the national spotlight. This funding included a mix of grants and contracts with the university.
In a second letter the following week, the administration outlined specific changes they wanted to see after discussions with the university, including that the school enforce its disciplinary policies, implement rules for protests, ban masks used for the “purpose of concealing one’s identity,” announce a plan to hold student groups accountable, empower its law enforcement and review its Middle East studies programs and its admissions.
After about two weeks of back and forth, the university set out an action plan for the changes it would implement, which appear to be intended to address the administration’s concerns.
The university’s board of trustees endorsed the changes, saying it believes they are in line with the school’s values and mission.
“Members of our community and external stakeholders have raised concerns about a multitude of issues, such as antisemitism, discrimination, harassment, and bias,” the trustees wrote. “We take these concerns seriously, and we are committed to creating a better environment on campus. We are confident that building on the progress and ideas outlined today will help us achieve these goals.”
While it is not immediately clear what will happen next, three federal agencies called the policy changes a “positive first step.”
In a statement Monday evening following the government’s announcement about Harvard’s funding, acting Columbia University President Claire Shipman said the university has continued “good faith discussions” with the administration in order to restore their working relationship.
But she emphasized that no agreements have been made, and the school would reject any where “the government dictates what we teach, research, or who we hire,” or “would require us to relinquish our independence and autonomy as an educational institution.”
“Like many of you, I read with great interest the message from Harvard refusing the federal government’s demands for changes to policies and practices that would strike at the very heart of that university’s venerable mission. In this moment, a continued public conversation about the value and principles of higher education is enormously useful,” she said.
Princeton University
Last Thursday, the Trump administration suspended research grants for New Jersey’s Princeton University, totaling $210 million as the school is investigated for antisemitism on campus.
The grants came from NASA, the Defense Department and the Energy Department, according to the school.
“The full rationale for this action is not yet clear,” University President Christopher Eisgruber wrote in a message to the university in March.
While it’s not been made public if discussions with the administration are happening behind the scenes, Eisgruber has been outspoken about his concerns with the paused funding.
Before Princeton University’s funding was suspended, Eisgruber penned an op-ed about Columbia University’s battle in the Atlantic, calling the administration’s attack “the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s.”
Following the funding suspension, Eisgruber told the New York Times that he wasn’t willing to make any concessions with the government, but said that’s because they hadn’t asked anything specifically of them yet. But if the time comes, which Eisgruber refused to speculate on if it would, he told the Times “I believe it is essential for us to protect academic freedom.”
Cornell University and Northwestern University
Last Tuesday, more than $1 billion in funding for Cornell University, an Ivy League school based in Ithica, New York, and $790 million in funding at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, were frozen by the administration, a White House official told CNN.
”The money was frozen in connection with several ongoing, credible, and concerning Title VI investigations,” a Trump administration official said, referring to a federal statute that prohibits discrimination in programs and activities that receive federal funding.
Neither university was made aware by the government that the funding was frozen until it was reported by media, they both said in statements last week, although Cornell said it did receive more than 75 stop work orders from the Department of Defense.
“We are actively seeking information from federal officials to learn more about the basis for these decisions,” Cornell University said in a statement.
Northwestern University said it has“fully cooperated” with investigations from Congress and the Department of Education.
“Federal funds that Northwestern receives drive innovative and life-saving research, like the recent development by Northwestern researchers of the world’s smallest pacemaker, and research fueling the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” a statement from the school said. “This type of research is now at jeopardy.”
On Monday, Cornell University announced it was joining a lawsuit challenging the Department of Energy proposed cuts to indirect costs like facilities and utilities, but this appears to be separate from the frozen funding.
By Taylor Romine, CNN
