Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
“Harvard on Monday rejected numerous demands from the Trump administration that it said would cede control of the school to a conservative government that portrays universities as dangerously leftist. Within hours of Harvard taking its stand, the administration of President Donald Trump announced it was freezing $2.3 billion in federal funding to the school…
“The funding freeze comes after the Trump administration said last month it was reviewing $9 billion in federal contracts and grants to Harvard as part of a crackdown on what it says is antisemitism that erupted on college campuses during pro-Palestinian protests in the past 18 months.” Reuters
“Trump threatened to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status on Tuesday and said the university should apologize.” Reuters
Read our previous coverage of federal funds being withheld from Columbia University here and here. The Flip Side
The left is critical of the freeze, arguing that it violates Harvard’s right to free expression.
“The section on ‘Viewpoint Diversity in Admissions and Hiring’ reads: ‘Every department or field found to lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by hiring a critical mass of new faculty within that department or field who will provide viewpoint diversity; every teaching unit found to lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by admitting a critical mass of students who will provide viewpoint diversity.’ In other words, bring in a new crop of far-right students and faculty to take over every department.”
Marin Scotten, New Republic
“The Trump administration’s demand letter [calls] for an independent auditor to review all Harvard departments to assure ‘viewpoint diversity.’ Such an audit could require Harvard to hire faculty who say specific things the Trump administration wants to have said… That’s called an ‘unconstitutional condition.’ The government can’t take away some benefit to which you are entitled on the condition you give up a constitutional right like free speech…
“Harvard can also deepen its First Amendment argument [in court] by saying that the Trump administration has targeted it for speech that took place on campus. That, too, violates the university’s free speech. Finally, the university can argue that it has a free-association right to admit the students that it wants.”
Noah Feldman, Bloomberg
“[These demands epitomize] a defining characteristic of the second Trump administration: the comprehensive repurposing of the ‘woke’ social-justice movement’s most controversial and coercive tools for reactionary ends. And so this performative confrontation with the nation’s apex university has taken the form of a crusade for so-called freedom that is completely destructive of liberty and independence. The administration is not anti-woke; it is woke with right-wing characteristics…
“Resentful of places like Harvard, jealous of their ability to confer status, Trump and his happy warriors of aggrievement have attempted to force themselves inside. To that end, they are all too willing to apply the full fiduciary might of the federal government to impose their very own diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucracy replete with mandated safe spaces that would preclude the slightest microaggression.”
Thomas Chatterton Williams, The Atlantic
“This is an administration that has disdain for anything approaching free expression. Now it will be up to the university presidents to build a united front… [Trump] is not as powerful as Julius Caesar or Adolf Hitler; he is a democratically elected president with a steadily falling approval rating. He can be battled in the courts and in the public square. There’s no grand, popular yearning for curtailing speech in the name of Israel. Even the MAGA base can only care so much… Now’s the time to hit back.”
Ross Barkan, New York Magazine
The right supports the freeze, arguing that Harvard must abide by federal law if it wants to receive federal funding.
The right supports the freeze, arguing that Harvard must abide by federal law if it wants to receive federal funding.
“On these campuses, Jewish and Israeli students have been repeatedly singled out, student organizations have placed exclusions on Jewish participation and identifiable Jews have been systematically attacked, harassed, and prevented from enjoying the same free expression that is routinely granted the pro-Hamas mobs calling for death to the Jews…
“Harvard’s Jews were told they could not keep their Hanukkah menorah up overnight because the school would not guarantee its safety. That’s the status quo Harvard that its defenders seek to return to. Not a single one of them is truly interested in free speech, free expression, or academic freedom.”
Seth Mandel, Commentary
“By receiving federal grant money for research, student loans to subsidize its tuition, and other federal monies, Harvard has essentially accepted federal oversight in how the school operates. This is not a new concept; every administration has used the threat of suspension of federal funding to enforce its interpretation of federal laws and regulations in campus policies…
“One of the most significant flexes of that authority came from Barack Obama, whose administration used the threat to force schools to reduce or eliminate due-process protections in cases of alleged sexual harassment and assault. Schools set up kangaroo courts and railroaded accused students in a manner befitting the Salem witch trials…
“Trump reversed those demands in his first term only to have Joe Biden re-impose them, along with federal demands on pronoun usage… Obama did more to stifle freedom on campuses than any other president in modern history, both academic and in terms of liberty. He did so using the very same mechanism that Trump is using now -- access to the federal trough.”
Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
“Americans are very seriously questioning the blank check they’ve handed higher education for generations. Why is it that the average American taxpayer who has never attended Harvard, whose children will never attend Harvard, and who may even be outright discriminated against by Harvard (despite the Supreme Court ruling), has to pay for a school that has an endowment larger than the GDP of many small countries?…
“Harvard made the full transition over the generations from a Christian to secular institution. And now it, like higher education in general, holds dearly to an extremely narrow left-wing worldview that has become the dominant ethos of the West’s ruling elite. That ethos is very much at odds with the general American public that underwrites the institution. If they want to be like that then fine. But now thanks to the Trump administration they may not be able to do that on the public dime anymore.”
Jarrett Stepman, Daily Signal
38 Colorful Birds You Didn't Know Exist.
HowStuffWorks
