The College Fix

Harvard ‘will not accept’ the administration’s ‘proposed agreement,’ university president says 

President Donald Trump’s administration froze $2.2 billion in funding to Harvard University Monday after the school resisted its demands to address antisemitism.

“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a public letter published Monday after the school was hit with a list of demands it must fulfill to avoid losing funding.

Garber (pictured) accused the administration of federal overreach and of failing to work with the school “in a cooperative and constructive manner.”

The university president specifically condemned the “requirements to ‘audit’ the viewpoints” of students and staff and “to ‘reduc[e] the power’ of certain students, faculty, and administrators targeted because of their ideological views.”

He stated that the university “will not accept” the administration’s “proposed agreement.”

“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 wrote.

Hours later, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism issued a news release announcing “a freeze on $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60M in multi-year contract value to Harvard University.”

“Harvard’s statement today 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 task force stated.

It also stated that the “harassment of Jewish students is intolerable” and it’s time for universities to “commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support.”

A national free speech group commended the university for “not caving to the federal government’s unlawful demands.”

“[W]e must not allow the government to coerce, extort, or capture our colleges. A principled defense of academic freedom requires no less,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression wrote in a post on X Monday.

The Trump administration sent Harvard a list of demands to address antisemitism on April 3 and an updated list on April 11.

The demands include that the school ban face masks, enforce disciplinary policies, eliminate “diversity, equity, and inclusion” practices, “reject race- and gender-based preferences in hiring and review,” and make changes to programs “accused of fueling antisemitism,” The Harvard Crimson reported.

In the updated list of demands sent to the school on Friday, the Trump administration set a deadline of August 2025 for Harvard to implement “meaningful governance reform and restructuring.”

It specifically targets the Divinity School, Graduate School of Education, School of Public Health, Medical School, and Religion and Public Life Program, among others.

Late last month, the Trump administration launched a review of $9 billion in Harvard’s federal funding to determine whether to issue Stop Work Orders for any identified contracts, The College Fix previously reported.

Harvard is not the only school to be hit with a list of demands from the Trump administration. Last month, Columbia University agreed to implement a list of policy changes to appease the administration’s concerns over rampant antisemitism and restore $400 million in federal funding.

MORE: Trump admin freezing $1 billion to Cornell and $790 million to Northwestern

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Harvard President Alan Garber; Harvard University/YouTube

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