Trump administration to pull another $1 billion in federal grants from Harvard University: Report

There’s no end in sight to the high-stakes US government-Harvard University battle. Days after the country’s oldest university refused to concede grounds to the White House over its demands for changes in campus policies, the Donald Trump administration is already planning its next move — pulling another $1 billion in federal grants and contracts for health research, according to The Wall Street Journal.This came a week after the Oval Office froze $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contract value following the varsity’s refusal to share hiring data with the administration. Apart from that, the Republican government demands that the country’s wealthiest university submit itself to ‘audits’ of academic programs and departments.

“Before Monday, the administration was planning to treat Harvard more leniently than Columbia University,

but now officials want to apply even more pressure to the nation’s most prominent university, according to the people,” the Journal reported.
Citing people familiar with Harvard’s response, the American daily reported that there was no agreement to keep the letter private and that its contents, including requirements that Harvard allow federal government oversight of admissions, hiring, and the ideology of students and staff, were a nonstarter.In a letter, Harvard President Alan M Garber said that while some of the government demands were “aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”

While Columbia University more or less accepted government demands after the administration revoked about $400 million in federal funding, Harvard, so far, has appeared defiant, with President Garber saying the University would “not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”

Among other demands, the Trump administration calls for banning masks at campus protests and reducing the power held by faculty and administrators “more committed to activism than scholarship,” CNN reported.