The Trump administration is feuding with elite educational institutions, announcing mid-April it would cut off more than $2.2 billion in funding to Harvard University, and this week threatening cuts to another $1 billion of its federal grants and funding.
Harvard, in return, is now suing the administration over the funding freeze, which it calls “unlawful and beyond the government’s authority.”
The White House responded that Harvard’s “gravy train of federal assistance” is coming to an end.
But Harvard isn’t the only school the Trump administration is fighting. Other institutions are facing similar circumstances – starting with New York City’s Columbia University.
The Trump administration unveiled plans in March to freeze roughly $400 million in funding for Columbia, prompting the university to enact changes, including expelling and suspending several students involved in protests and demonstrations on campus in support of Palestinians.
Additionally, Columbia complied with several other demands from the Trump administration to place additional oversight over the Middle Eastern studies department and ban masks that conceal an individual’s identity.
TRUMP ADMIN SLASHES OVER $2.2B IN FUNDING TO HARVARD AFTER SCHOOL DEFIES DEMANDS
Still, acting president Claire Shipman issued a statement April 18, providing updates on the university’s work with the Trump administration’s Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, while also claiming that Columbia would push back against efforts that would “require us to relinquish our independence and autonomy as an educational institution.”
The Trump administration also announced earlier in April that it would halt more than $1 billion in funding for Cornell University and approximately $790 million for Northwestern University amid investigations into alleged civil rights violations.
“These developments are deeply disturbing,” Northwestern University said in an April 10 statement. “They impact the critical research we perform every day, the lives of those who do it and those who benefit from it. They also cut to the core of what makes Northwestern one of the world’s greatest universities.”
“This situation is changing rapidly, but we are working quickly and deliberately to gather facts to help us understand and respond to this emerging crisis,” Northwestern said.
Roughly $510 million in funds for Brown University could also be on the chopping block, a White House official told the Associated Press April 3, due to allegations of antisemitism at the school.
The University of Pennsylvania also faced a freeze on approximately $175 million in federal funding, due to the school’s transgender student athlete Lia Thomas, a biological male who identifies as transgender and competes in women’s events. The funding pause stemmed from when the school “infamously permitted a male to compete on its women’s swimming team,” the Daily Pennsylvanian reported that the White House said.
HARVARD WON’T COMPLY WITH TRUMP ADMIN’S DEMANDS AMID THREATS OF CUTTING FEDERAL FUNDING
After Harvard refused to comply with a series of requests from the Trump administration to reform various practices on campus, the administration revealed April 18 that it would freeze more than $2 billion in federal funding for the institution.
Harvard University President Alan M. Garber said in a statement that the Trump administration tacked on additional requests that go beyond addressing antisemitism on campus, and the institution would not comply because the demands were unconstitutional.
Specifically, Garber said the new requests “direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard,” including auditing viewpoints of student, faculty and staff members on campus, and eliminating all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, offices and initiatives at Harvard.
“It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner,” Garber wrote. “We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement.”
The Trump administration stood up the Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism in February, which aims to eradicate bias on campuses that have experienced incidents targeting Jewish students since October 2023.
“It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support,” the task force said in a statement.
The Associated Press and Fox News’ Stepheny Price contributed to this report.
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