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Harvard University on Monday sued the Trump administration to block its “illegal” efforts to freeze more than $ 3 billion in federal funds and increase the government’s supervision for the honorable institution.
In a statement, Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, warned of “comprehensive and intervening government demands … would impose unprecedented and improper control over” with “real -life consequences for patients, students, faculty, staff, researchers and the attitude of US higher education in the world”.
He added: “We stand for the truth that colleges and universities across the country can embrace and honor their legal obligations and best fulfill their essential role in society without improper government interference.”
The government has accused Harvard of failing to fight anti -Semitism on the campus. After freezing $ 2.2 billion in federal funds earlier this month, he is also seeking to block future grants worth hundreds of millions of dollars from Harvard and four other US elite universities.
In an email discovered in the journal Nature and published on Monday, a senior official from the National Institute of Health instructed colleagues to “stop prices” at Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Cornell and Northwestern universities – and give no reason for cuts. Last year’s grants for these institutions amounted to $ 1.7 billion.
The Trump administration has also threatened to revoke Harvard taxes after university leadership rejected the government’s close controls on its academic freedom.
Separately, the letters issued in the publication of the Fixed College last week showed the US Health and Human Health and Human Services Office demanded that Harvard provide copies of all its findings or draft reports on the fight against anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli prejudice, as well as others on anti-Muslim prejudices.
Seven universities have been singled out for target government cuts since Mars. Michael Kotlikoff, president of Cornell, said in an email at his university on Monday that he had not received any official government communication confirming a $ 1 billion inserted in early April.
But he added that Cornell’s researchers had received a series of “prohibition of work” from government funders and said the university is “responding by force”. “This involves engaging the legal, strategic and policies levels to turn these actions and prevent further disruption,” he added.
Separately, the government has increased in recent weeks of prohibitions on demonstrators of pro-relevant students across the country, revoking hundreds of visas of international students. Last week she demanded that Harvard provide detailed data on “illegal and violent activities of his student visa holders” or lose his ability to obtain foreign students.
Harvard replied that “would not surrender its independence or give up its constitutional rights.” “We will continue to respect the law and wait for the administration to do the same,” Garber said in a statement.
The university has established committees to investigate anti -Semitism and release their preliminary recommendations last summer. Garber said on Monday that this and a special report on Muslim, Anti-Arab and Anti-Palestinian prejudices would be published “soon”.
Wall Street Journal reported that the government’s anti -Semitism Task Force was angry by Harvard’s decision to release its letter and was planning further freezing of $ 1 billion.
Harvard’s decision to oppose government demands – in contrast to the omissions of Columbia University in the Administration Order for a Student Governance and Discipline Adjustment – has sparked an increase in Alumni donations, with several thousand contributions reported by the Crimson Gazette last week.
Members of the faculties, students and Alumni at other universities have also increased their demands for greater coordination to resist the attacks of the Trump administration on higher education institutions.
Claire Shipman, the president of his duty of Colombia, said in a statement: “Although we seek to continue constructive dialogue with the government, we will reject any agreement that would require us to renounce our independence and autonomy as an educational institution.”
Harvard is in a better position than most universities to withstand cuts in government financing; Its wealth of $ 53 billion is the largest of any higher education institution in the US
Some universities, including Harvard, are directed to bond markets to generate short -term money, providing them with liquidity to help overcome short -term funding and future legal battles. Many have also implemented work freezing and cost reduction measures.
