Harvard University and the Founding Body: Why Do Universities Spend $Lambda$ money to Research? A Sentiment Against the Perils of the Trump-Bush Program
With elite U.S. universities in President Trump’s crosshairs, the leader of Harvard University says institutions need to double down on their “commitment to the good of the nation” and be firm in what they stand for.
Inskeep: In that same statement announcing that you would lose the right to host international students, the DHS was able to link to one of Harvard’s own documents. It’s a report by a presidential commission to you. It’s your commission looking at problems at Harvard University. I read through the document. There are a lot of accusations in there about things that have gone wrong here and my eye fell on one sentence, which I wrote down. I’ll quote it to you: “Since fall 2023, different factions at Harvard have fought to force various university leaders to make statements, invest, divest, hire, fire, doxx, un-doxx, discipline students and undiscipline them.” What do you think the problem is?
Why do you cut off funding for research? It hurts Harvard, but it hurts the country because research funding is not a gift and is awarded by the federal government.
A faculty member of ours just got the Breakthrough Prize for work that led to the discovery of GLP-1 drugs, which are now revolutionizing how we approach obesity, diabetes and many other conditions. The breakthrough prize this year went to a faculty member for their work in curing diseases by using gene editing. This is a huge part of what we do. The research work of universities like ours benefits everyone. And it is not only about Harvard. I think that’s important to remember. The changes that the administration is considering will affect all research universities, as well as impact the ability of the US to remain at the forefront of science and technology.
The federal government’s Joint Task Force to combat antisemitism said in an April statement that Harvard’s lack of compliance “reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges – that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws. The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable. There is intolerable harassment of Jewish students. It is time for elite universities to stop getting taxpayer support if they want to change.
Garber sat for an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep and discussed Harvard’s ongoing legal fights with the Trump administration, the work of major research universities, and the administration’s concerns about antisemitism on campus and its assertion that Harvard lacks political “viewpoint diversity.”
Is this what you mean? when, in the lawsuit, you say that without international students, which is a quarter of your student body, Harvard would not be Harvard?
To the best of my comprehension, they are not true. I have to add that this is the subject of litigation as you pointed out earlier. So we have endeavored to comply fully in line with the law.
What do you think about Harvard – what do you want to tell them about a university that is based on research, and what do they deem useful to society?
I believe that we have made progress on campus over the last year, and that is what many faculty and staff and students tell me. There has been real progress. It’s hard to compare what goes on on campus to what takes place in the rest of the country. From what I’ve heard, we have many fewer violent incidents. They are almost unheard of at our campus and probably less vandalised. Social exclusion is the main cause of antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias. It’s the result of shunning. If a student sits down at a dining room table and they have good conversations with other students who don’t know them, and when the other students find out that that student is Israeli, if they refuse to continue to speak to them, we have a serious problem that we need to address.
Inskeep: Is that a small example of what you’re trying to do in a large way? You want to allow all kinds of ideas, but you also want people to be civil with each other.
That’s right. We want people to be able to discuss difficult topics with one another, especially when they disagree. We shouldn’t be in an echo chamber. Everyone in our community needs to hear other views. That’s one reason why we need to have international students on our campus. They contribute so much to our environment that everyone else can open their minds.
What would you tell someone in the middle of the country who’s listening that they have no reason to care about this? I don’t go to Harvard. I am not sending my child to Harvard. I don’t like Harvard very much. This seems to be about a different kind of people. Harvard deserves what they are getting. Or in any case, it doesn’t matter much to me.” What do you say to someone who has that attitude?
Garber: I would ask them to learn a little bit more, not only about Harvard, but about universities like Harvard – that is research universities. Our university is centered on teaching and learning. If you look at the activities of the university, it’s all about research. Harvard and other research universities have made a number of discoveries related to cancer and treatments of the disease.
What’s the most effective use of a federal grant and a contract? A warning to the federal government to switch contracts with Harvard universities, as announced by the GSA
Garber: I would say that the federal government has the authority through the budgeting process to reallocate funds. The question is what problem is he trying to solve by doing that. The money that goes to research universities in the form of grants and contracts, which is almost all of the federal support that we get, is used to pay for work that we perform at the behest of the government. So in reallocating to some other use, including trade schools, it means that work just won’t be performed. Is this the most effective use of federal funding? Do you want to cut back on research? I’m less interested in it going to a trade school than it is in working on highways. The federal government gets value from its research expenditures. The returns to the American people have been enormous, according to research.
Garber: Well, they said it I have to believe it and repeat it myself. And that is how it’s understood by the other leaders of other universities that I have spoken to. It is a warning. They see this as a message that if you don’t comply with what we’re demanding, these will be the consequences.
The letter tells agencies to make a list of contracts that have been terminated by June 6.
The GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service has sent a letter to the agency that encourages it to seek alternative vendors for future services that it once considered Harvard.
The government official, who did not want to be named because they were not authorized to speak, confirmed the authenticity of the letter, first published by the New York Times.