Last month, Fuhrer Trump issued a list of demands to Columbia University. Among those demands were eliminating all DEI programs, banning face masks, and installing new heads to the Middle Eastern studies department. As soon as the Trump administration froze $400 million in federal funding, Columbia kowtowed and agreed to many sweeping changes in order to get the money back. Everyone knew this wouldn’t be a one-off, and sure enough Harvard, America’s oldest university, received its own ransom note last week. On Friday, Harvard faculty banded together and sued Trump for even issuing the demands while funding is under review. Then earlier this week on Monday, Harvard President Alan M. Garber officially had the university’s lawyers inform the White House that no, the school would not be dictated to by the government. Trump retaliated quickly by freezing $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts. Unlike Columbia, Harvard isn’t blinking. F–king finally, a powerful institutional fighting back!
Say no to thugs: The university received a letter from a federal task force last week outlining additional policy demands that “will maintain Harvard’s financial relationship with the federal government.” “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. “The University will not surrender its independence or its constitutional rights.” The Trump administration has threatened numerous colleges across the U.S. with funding cuts if changes in school policy weren’t made, and Harvard’s move appears to mark the first time an elite university has rebuked the White House over those demands.
Some of the demands: Among the mandates in the administration’s letter are the elimination of Harvard’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs, banning masks at campus protests, merit-based hiring and admissions reforms and reducing the power held by faculty and administrators “more committed to activism than scholarship.”
Trump, crusader against antisemitism: The proposed changes are the latest effort of the federal task force to combat antisemitism on college campuses after a spate of high-profile incidents around the country in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. “President Trump is working to Make Higher Education Great Again by ending unchecked anti-Semitism and ensuring federal taxpayer dollars do not fund Harvard’s support of dangerous racial discrimination or racially motivated violence,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement. “Harvard or any institution that wishes to violate Title VI is, by law, not eligible for federal funding.”
Speaking veritas to power: Garber said the majority of demands “represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard. … No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Garber said.
Trump’s cabinet is threatening to cut more funding: The demands in the administration’s earlier letter also include “full cooperation” with the Department of Homeland Security, which enforces immigration policy, and federal regulators to ensure “full compliance,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Harvard Crimson, a student-run newspaper. The letter was received days after the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and the US General Services Administration announced they are reviewing $8.7 billion in grants and more than $255 million worth of contracts between Harvard, its affiliates and the federal government, according to a news release.
Trying to pass off these policy demands under the guise of fighting antisemitism is so vile. Which means it’s completely on brand for this Nazi-admiring administration. And just like the massive cuts across our health agencies, so too will the kneecapping of Harvard’s studies be devastating for the country, and really the world. As President Garber has said: “For the government to retreat from these partnerships now risks not only the health and well-being of millions of individuals, but also the economic security and vitality of our nation.” If Trump ever actually hears those words, I’m sure he’ll respond to the economic security part by slapping Harvard with some tariffs. To be blunt, thank f–k Harvard stood up and did the right thing. It sets the precedent we’ve been waiting in agony for (looking at you Congress, and Columbia), and it’s already catching — Yale faculty is rallying behind their fellow Ivy, and Big Ten schools are mapping out “mutual defense compacts.”
To make a college spirit chant of this: Let’s go Crimson! And gtfo, Tangerine.
Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.
— Barack Obama (@barackobama.bsky.social) April 14, 2025 at 11:52 PM