The Trump administration has slashed $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in contract funding from Harvard University, citing the institution’s refusal to abandon its controversial ‘woke policies.’ The decision, announced Monday, marks a bold move against the university’s stance on administrative demands.
Harvard’s defiance earlier that day, when it publicly rejected the administration’s call for policy changes, triggered the immediate funding freeze. The university’s leadership argued that complying would compromise its values, escalating tensions with the administration and sparking debate over federal influence in higher education.
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CNN reports: In response to the funding freeze, the university referred CNN to its earlier statement that it would not comply with the administration’s demands, specifically focusing on the following: “For the government to retreat from these partnerships now risks not only the health and well-being of millions of individuals, but also the economic security and vitality of our nation.”
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The university received a letter from a federal task force last week outlining additional policy demands that “will maintain Harvard’s financial relationship with the federal government.”
“We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement,” Harvard President Alan M. Garber said in a statement. “The University will not surrender its independence or its constitutional rights.”
The Trump administration has threatened numerous colleges across the U.S. with funding cuts if changes in school policy weren’t made, and Harvard’s move appears to mark the first time an elite university has rebuked the White House over those demands.
Among the mandates in the administration’s letter are the elimination of Harvard’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs, banning masks at campus protests, merit-based hiring and admissions reforms and reducing the power held by faculty and administrators “more committed to activism than scholarship.”
The proposed changes are the latest effort of the federal task force to combat antisemitism on college campuses after a spate of high-profile incidents around the country in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“President Trump is working to Make Higher Education Great Again by ending unchecked anti-Semitism and ensuring federal taxpayer dollars do not fund Harvard’s support of dangerous racial discrimination or racially motivated violence,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement. “Harvard or any institution that wishes to violate Title VI is, by law, not eligible for federal funding.”
Garber said the majority of demands “represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”
“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 said.
Harvard’s endowment was $53.2 billion in 2024, according to a financial report from the university.