The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it is stripping an additional $450 million in federal grants from Harvard University after $2 billion in federal funding had already been frozen.
The “Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism” said the additional freeze comes after the Ivy League school “repeatedly failed to confront the pervasive race discrimination and anti-Semitic harassment plaguing its campus.” The new cuts are to grants handed out through eight different federal agencies.
“Harvard’s campus, once a symbol of academic prestige, has become a breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination. This is not leadership; it is cowardice,” the task force wrote in a statement announcing the additional cuts. “And it’s not academic freedom; it’s institutional disenfranchisement. There is a dark problem on Harvard’s campus, and by prioritizing appeasement over accountability, institutional leaders have forfeited the school’s claim to taxpayer support.”
The task force added that Harvard, which was founded in 1636 to train clergymen, “faces a steep, uphill battle to reclaim its legacy as a lawful institution and center of academic excellence.”
Harvard is in the middle of a legal challenge to the Trump administration’s funding freeze. The president has gone after the university for allowing anti-Israel protests and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs on its campus. Last month, Trump called Harvard “Anti-Semitic,” “Far-Left,” and “a threat to Democracy.”
“The place is a Liberal mess, allowing a certain group of crazed lunatics to enter and exit the classroom and spew fake ANGER AND HATE. It is truly horrific!” Trump said.
Harvard has pushed back against the funding freeze and the Trump administration’s demands for more oversight over the university. Harvard filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in April, arguing that the federal government is executing “a pressure campaign” that “violates Harvard’s constitutional rights.” The school’s president, Alan M. Garber, shot back at the Trump administration, writing, “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.”
As Harvard continued to fight Trump’s demands, it announced last month that it was rebranding the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, changing the name to “Community and Campus Life” and focusing on “expanding cross-cultural engagement programs, supporting first-generation and low-income students, and creating more opportunities for dialogue across differences.” Harvard’s chief diversity officer position was also renamed and will now be called the Chief Community and Campus Life Officer, according to The Harvard Crimson. The DEI office rebrand was the first step that appeared to align with Trump’s demands.
