Harvard University sues Trump administration for more than $2.2B US grants freeze

Harvard announced on Monday that the agency said it would ignore the Trump administration’s demands to restrict radicalism on campus.

In a letter to Harvard earlier this month, the Trump administration called on universities to carry out extensive government and leadership reforms and change their admission policies. It also calls on the university to audit the diversity of campuses and stop endorsing some student clubs.

Harvard President Alan Garber said universities will not meet the government’s requirements. A few hours later, the government freezes billions of dollars in federal funds.

“The government has not- nor can it determine any reasonable link between anti-Semitism issues and medicine, science, technology and other research, aimed at saving American lives, promoting American success, maintaining American security, and maintaining American status as a global leader in innovation,” the university wrote in the lawsuit.

“The government also did not acknowledge that billions of dollars in federal research funding would have a significant consequence of the unlimited freeze of national interest in furthering the U.S. innovation and progress,” the lawsuit said.

Government letter calls for changes in Harvard leadership

The Trump administration told Harvard in an April 11 letter that it imposes stricter discipline on protesters and screens international students for those “hostile to American values.”

It also calls for extensive leadership reforms at universities, changes in admissions policy and university recognition for certain student clubs. The government also requires Harvard to review its faculty to ensure a broad perspective in each department and diversify if necessary by acknowledging more students and hiring new teachers.

Harvard said last Monday that this was not complying with the grounds for the First Amendment.

The next day, Trump boarded his Truth Social Platform, questioning whether universities should lose their tax-free status “if the inspiration/support of politics, ideology and terrorists continue to push for “disease? ” “

The Trump administration also threatens to prevent college admissions.

Harvard says demand threatens university autonomy

Universities see government demands as a threat to Ivy League schools and a long-time grant of autonomy to American universities by the Supreme Court.

For the Trump administration, Harvard raised the first major obstacle to forcing universities to impose change, which Republicans say has become a hotbed of liberalism and anti-Semitism.

The conflict is strengthening long-term relationship between the federal government and universities that use federal funds to fuel scientific breakthroughs. This has long been a benefit to the greater good, and this money has become a leverage for the Trump administration.

“Today, we represent the values ​​that make American higher education a beacon in the world,” Garber wrote to the Harvard University community on Monday.

“We represent the fact that universities across the country can fulfill and fulfill their legal obligations and best perform their important role in society in the event of improper government invasion,” he wrote.

“That’s how we achieve academic excellence, guarantee open inquiries and freedom of speech, and conduct groundbreaking research, and how we can drive infinite exploration to drive our country and its people into a better future.”