Harvard University punished with $2b funding freeze for defying Trump

Harvard University has been hit with a $2.3bn federal funding freeze after the Ivy League institution took a stand against the Trump administration’s ongoing demands.

The freeze, representing 35.9 percent of Harvard's $6.4bn operating expenses, immediately followed a letter on Monday from Harvard University lawyers to the Trump administration, stating that it rejected the government’s demands.

The letter, issued by Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and LLP King & Spalding LLP, said that “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”

University president Alan Garber also issued a public letter on Monday saying the university refused to capitulate to the Trump administration’s demands “to control the Harvard community” and threaten its “values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production and dissemination of knowledge”.

Harvard rejected the government’s demands, including reporting foreign students for code violations, reforming its governance and leadership, discontinuing its diversity, equity, and inclusion programmes, and changing its hiring and admission policies, especially for international students.

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