On Monday, Harvard University rejected numerous demands from the Trump administration, which resulted in $2.3 billion cuts in funding within hours of its decision.
While rejecting Trump’s demands, the president of Harvard Alan Garber said that it’s a private institution and the government can’t dictate what private universities will teach whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.
Few prominent leaders, like Barack Obama, supported Harvard’s action and said, “Harvard has set an example.”
This issue erupted last year before Donald Trump held presidential office when many Palestinian students in many universities started protesting against Israel and the USA.
On Friday, the education department in a letter mentioned that university had “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.”
The letter also stated that Harvard, by August 2025, must only hire faculty and admit students based on merit and cease all preferences based on race, colour or national origin.
The university must also screen international students “to prevent admitting students hostile to American values” and report to federal immigration authorities foreign students who violate conduct rules.
In January also, Harvard agreed to provide additional protection to Jewish students because of the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.
To ease any funding crunch created by Trump administration’s cutoff in federal funding, university is working to borrow $750 million from Wall Street.
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