The federal government on Monday night said it was freezing more than $2 billion in grants to Harvard University after the school said it would not accept Trump administration demands that included auditing viewpoints of the student body.
The administration's Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced the cuts in a statement that called out "the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges."
It said that $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million "in multi-year contract value" would be frozen to the Ivy League university.
Earlier Monday Harvard rejected the administration's demands.
"The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights," the university's X account said in a statement posted Monday. "Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government."
In an email to the Harvard community, President Alan M. Garber said the university received "an updated and expanded list of demands" from the White House administration, warning it to comply if it would like to "maintain financial relationship with the federal government."
The 10 demands, which the administration says are aimed at addressing antisemitism on campus, include restricting the acceptance of international students who are "hostile to the American values and institutions." The administration also wants a third party to audit programs that it says "fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture."
The administration also demanded the immediate shuttering of all diversity, equity and inclusion programs and initiatives, including in hiring and admissions. It asked Harvard to exchange them for "merit-based" policies.
Garber called the demands "unprecedented," denouncing them as an attempt "to control the Harvard community" by policing the viewpoints of students, faculty and staff members.
The university informed the Trump administration through legal counsel that it would not accept the terms.
"It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner," Garber said. "Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the 'intellectual conditions' at Harvard."
In a letter to the administration, lawyers said that the university is "committed to fighting antisemitism and other forms of bigotry in its community" but that the administration's demands "invade university freedoms long recognized by the Supreme Court."
"The government's terms also circumvent Harvard's statutory rights by requiring unsupported and disruptive remedies for alleged harms that the government has not proven through mandatory processes established by Congress and required by law," the letter reads.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields in a statement attacked Harvard and showed no signs of backing down.
"President Trump is working to Make Higher Education Great Again by ending unchecked anti-Semitism and ensuring federal taxpayer dollars do not fund Harvard’s support of dangerous racial discrimination or racially motivated violence," Fields said.
The Trump administration has made similar demands of other universities in what it says are efforts to combat antisemitism and other ideological views that it disagrees with.
Last month, Columbia University agreed to a list of nine demands from the administration, including banning students from wearing masks at protests, hiring 36 new campus security officers who can arrest students and appointing a senior vice provost to oversee the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies.
The administration had canceled $400 million in federal funding to the school, accusing it of "inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students."
