From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Trump administration freezes $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard amid antisemitism crackdown
BOSTON — The federal government says it’s freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus.
The hold on Harvard’s funding marks the seventh time US President Donald Trump’s administration has taken the step at one of the nation’s most elite colleges, in an attempt to force compliance with Trump’s political agenda. Six of the seven schools are in the Ivy League.
In a letter to Harvard Friday, Trump’s administration called for broad government and leadership reforms at the university, as well as changes to its admissions policies. It also demanded that the university audit views of diversity on campus, and stop recognizing some student clubs.
The federal government said almost $9 billion in grants and contracts were at risk if Harvard did not comply.
On Monday, Harvard President Alan Garber said the university would not bend to the government’s demands.
“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber said in a letter to the Harvard community. “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.”
The first university targeted by the Trump administration was Columbia, which acquiesced to the government’s demands under the threat of billions of dollars in cuts. The administration has also paused federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Princeton, Cornell, and Northwestern.
Trump’s administration has normalized the extraordinary step of withholding federal money to pressure major academic institutions to comply with the president’s political agenda and to influence campus policy. The administration has argued that universities allowed antisemitism to go unchecked at campus protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza.
