The Trump administration says that it will cut $450 million in funding to Harvard University because they have failed to address race discrimination by the government’s own standards. This is in addition to the $2.6 billion that was already revoked.
The Trump administration has argued that Harvard has “become a breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination,” particularly antisemitism. In April, the government sent a list of demands, which requiring Harvard to “shutter all DEI programs, ban masks, overhaul governance, conduct third-party audits of ‘viewpoint diversity’ in each department, immediately report international student conduct violations, and discipline anyone alleged to have stoked campus protests.”
Harvard may very well be a hellish echo chamber that has scored dismally low by free speech advocates but the government should not turn purse strings into puppet strings and set academic agendas. Its demands are clear government overreach and Harvard should be afforded due process to defend its own academic freedom and agenda before any monies are revoked. The government is not affording the school that right.
Alternatively, the government could set standards for accepting grants in advance and Harvard could decide if it wants that money but given that the grants were not predicated on the above conditions, it isn’t right for the administration to set its own agenda and answer censorship with censorship.
Harvard filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in April claiming that the Trump administration’s decision to freeze and terminate federal research funding is an unlawful attempt to exert control over the university’s academic operations.
