Harvard University has taken steps to correct the anti-Semitism of the U.S. government, including the federal government’s attempt to eliminate DEI programs
The Trump administration responded quickly to Harvard University’s defiance on Monday, freezing more than $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts after the university rejected demands that it change hiring, admissions and other policies.
Regardless of which party is in power private universities should be free to decide what they do and how they do it.
In a letter rejecting the government’s demands, Harvard’s lawyers outlined the steps the university has taken in order to address antisemitism on its campus.
The federal government is attempting to eliminate DEI programs nationwide because of alleged violations of civil rights laws at major universities. The administration cut $400 million in federal dollars after a year of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. It also froze about $1 billion in funding for Cornell University and about $790 million for Northwestern University.
University leaders told NPR it has been a struggle to cope with demands from the federal government while trying to focus on the wellbeing of their students, and education.
A multi-agency task force is performing a comprehensive review of $9 billion in federal contracts and multiyear grant commitments, the federal government said in March.
“Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination – all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry – has put its reputation in serious jeopardy,” wrote U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Harvard can right these wrongs,” she added, “and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus.”
The lawyers for Harvard wrote that the requested changes exceeded the government’s authority and violated the school’s First Amendment rights.
The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism responded to Harvard’s lawyers rejecting the demands of the administration.
The American Council on Education (A.C.E.D.U.S.) argues that “tax-exempt” universities are not political
The statement continued that the disruption of learning is unacceptable. “If they want to continue receiving taxpayer support, elite universities should take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change.”
The Harvard spokesmen referred back to the letter that mentioned the health and well-being of millions of individuals and the economic security of our nation.
If Harvard keeps pushing its political, ideological, and terrorist-inspired views, it may lose its tax exemption and be taxed as a political entity. Trump said in a post.
Within hours, the administration froze more than $2 billion in grant and contract to Harvard for research that was intended for a wide range of subjects.
The American Council on Education, an organization that represents over 1,600 colleges and universities, says that Harvard paved the way to oppose the administration’s demands by taking the lead.
“If Harvard hadn’t stood up,” Mitchell said, “it would have sent a chill across higher education that would have really hampered the ability of other institutions to define for themselves where that red line is.”
In March, the government announced that 60 universities were under investigation by the U.S. Education Department for allegedly failing to protect Jewish students.
In a speech in Florida in 2023, Trump said he would stop giving money to those schools that aid Marxist assaults on America and Western civilization. The days of giving money to communists in our colleges will end soon.
Former President Barack Obama said in a statement that the administration’s actions were an “unlawful” attempt to stifle academic freedom.
Mitchell said that the catalog of horrors was thick. “There are plenty of things that the administration can seek to do that would throw institutions off kilter. And tax-exempt status is certainly one of them.”
Colleges and universities are tax-exempt. They are included in a group of charities, religious institutions and political organizations.
The tax exemptions in higher education has long been a point of contention for Republicans. In 2017, Congress passed a 1.4 percent tax on university endowments, which affected many of the nation’s elite institutions.