Harvard said Monday it rejected policy changes requested by the Trump administration, becoming the first university to directly refuse to comply with its requirements and held a showdown between the federal government and the nation’s wealthiest universities.
Other universities also object to government intervention in higher education. But Harvard’s response said the Trump administration’s demands were illegal, marking a major shift in the tone of the country’s most influential schools, which has been criticized in recent weeks for reducing pressure on the Trump administration.
A letter sent by the Trump administration to Harvard on Friday asked the university to reduce the power of students and faculty over university affairs; report immediately foreign students who committed violations of conduct to federal authorities; and introduce an external political party to ensure that every academic department is “diverse”, among other steps. Governments do not define the meaning of diversity of opinions, but often mention seeking a range of political views, including conservative ones.
“Any government – no matter which party in power should decide what private universities can teach, who they can acknowledge and hire, and what areas of study they can pursue,” Harvard President Alan Garber said in a statement to the university on Monday.
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has actively targeted universities and said it is investigating dozens of schools because it can eliminate diversity efforts and what it calls anti-Semitism rampant on campus. Officials have suspended hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding for research at universities across the country.
The government is particularly interested in a short list of the most outstanding schools in the United States. Officials have discussed a high-profile university as part of a campaign to re-enter higher education. They first were at Columbia University, and then other members of the Ivy League, including Harvard.
As far as Harvard is concerned, it has been under tremendous pressure from its own students and faculty to be more powerful in resisting the Trump administration’s violations of colleges and higher education.
The Trump administration said in March that it was reviewing Harvard’s federal contract of about $256 million and another $8.7 billion on the so-called “multiple-year grant commitment.” The announcement continues to show that Harvard has not done enough to curb anti-Semitism on campus. At the time, it was vague for universities to satisfy the Trump administration’s concerns.
Last month, more than 800 faculty and staff at Harvard University signed a letter urging the university to “coordinate opposition to these anti-democratic attacks.”
On Monday, the university seemed to have taken a step in that direction. Dr. Garber stated in a letter rejecting the government’s request that Harvard had few other options.
“Colleges will not waive their independence or waive their constitutional rights,” he wrote. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university will allow the federal government to take over itself.”
The government’s letter to Harvard on Friday proposed a series of changes that would reshape the university and transfer unprecedented levels of control over Harvard’s actions to the federal government. These changes will violate principles precious on university campuses, including academic freedom.
Some actions the Trump administration calls for Harvard are:
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Share all its recruitment data with the Trump administration and review the “implementation of reforms” at least until 2028.
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All admission data are provided to the federal government, including information about rejected and accepted applicants classified by race, nationality, grade average, and performance of standardized tests.
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Close any programming related to diversity, equity and inclusion now.
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The Trump administration said it had overhauled the academic program, with a “serious record of anti-Semitism” including putting certain departments and plans under external audits. The list includes seminary, Graduate School of Education, School of Public Health and School of Medicine, among others.
The demands show that the federal government wants to invade the processes that universities prefer to control, such as how they acknowledge their classes. It also talks about the issue that conservative activists use as fighters against scholars. For example, theft accusations were one of the reasons why former Harvard President Claudine Gay was forced to resign.
“In recent years, Harvard University has failed to fulfill the intellectual and civil rights conditions for federal investment defense,” the letter from the Trump administration said.
Last month, Columbia agreed to the major benefits the federal government demanded after the Trump administration stripped $400 million of federal funds from Columbia University. It agreed to put the Eastern Research Department under different supervision and form a new security force of 36 “special officials” with the authority to arrest and evacuate the campus.
Harvard needs are different and more broadly talk about many aspects of the basic functioning of the university.
Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York, challenged university leaders, including Dr. Gay, who accused them of enduring anti-Semitism on campus content.
“It’s time to completely cut American taxpayers’ funds,” she wrote in a social media post on Monday.
In Harvard’s response Monday, it said it has made significant changes over the past 15 months to improve its campus climate and anti-Semitism, including honoring students who violate university policies, dedicating resources to programs that promote ideological diversity, and improving security.
Harvard said the government, unfortunately, ignored the efforts of the university and violated the freedoms of the school in an illegal manner.
Harvard’s powerful posture on Monday was praised in higher education after the university drew widespread criticism for failing to resist Mr. Trump’s attacks.
Harvard itself has been subject to a series of actions in recent months, with faculty members saying they are believed to be trying to appease Mr. Trump, including hiring a lobbying company with close ties to the president and launching faculty leaders at the Center for Middle East Research.
A Harvard faculty filed a lawsuit last week trying to prevent the government from placing threats to withdraw federal funds from the university. Nikolas Bowie, a law professor and secretary treasurer at the American Association of University Professors, filed a lawsuit, praising Harvard’s appreciation for the Trump administration’s demands.
“I thank President Gaber for his courage and leadership,” Dr. Bowie said. “His response recognizes that there is no negotiation with blackmail.”
Ted Mitchell, chairman of the U.S. Board of Education, represents many universities and universities in Washington.
“This has more room for others to stand up, partly because if Harvard didn’t, it would say to everyone else, ‘You don’t have a chance.'” said Dr. Mitchell, former president of the Western Academy. “It gives people a sense of possible.”
He described Harvard’s response as a “roadmap for how institutions oppose government invasion of institutions’ decisions.” “Whether it is anti-Semitism or performance-based recruitment or performance-based recruitment, it requires that the basic texture of the academic enterprise be determined by the university rather than the government,” he added.
Ethan Kelly, 22, a senior at Harvard University in Maryland, said Dr. Garber’s Monday message was a relief. He said he and many of his classmates were worried that their schools would fall into Trump administration’s demands.
“It is worrying that Harvard will fold under political pressure, especially the Trump administration’s aggressiveness in trying to control higher education,” Kelly said, adding that it was “important” to see Dr. Garber draw a clear line.
Among the related developments, nine major research universities and three university associations sued the Trump administration on the day to restore $400 million in funding, and the Department of Energy said it was cutting last week.
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Other schools listed as plaintiffs are Brown University, University of California, University of Illinois, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, Michigan, Princeton University and University of Rochester. The Department of Energy said it will significantly reduce the overhead or “indirect” costs associated with grants.
Reported by Stephanie Saul,,,,, Alan Blind And Miles Herszenhorn.
