$2.3 billion funding freeze: Trump administration targets Harvard over defiance

UPDATED: Apr 15, 2025 06:09 IST

The US Department of Education on Monday froze approximately $2.3 billion in federal funding to Harvard University after the Ivy League school refused to comply with White House demands to dismantle its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.

The freeze includes $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in federal contracts, according to the department's task force on combating antisemitism, which said Harvard's resistance reflected “the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation's most prestigious universities.”

The department's statement came hours after Harvard President Alan Garber sent a letter to the university community, defending the school’s independence and accusing the administration of overreach.

“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Garber wrote.

Garber argued the administration’s demands violate the First Amendment and exceed the federal government’s authority under Title VI, a civil rights law that bars discrimination based on race, color, or national origin.

“These ends will not be achieved by assertions of power, unmoored from the law, to control teaching and learning at Harvard,” he added. “The work of addressing our shortcomings... is ours to define and undertake as a community.”

Harvard is one of several elite institutions facing federal pressure. The Department of Education has also paused funding to the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, and Princeton over similar disagreements. The tactics mirror those that recently led Columbia University to revise its policies after being threatened with a multibillion-dollar funding cut.

Garber acknowledged the university had taken “extensive reforms to address antisemitism” but insisted those changes must be made on Harvard’s terms, not by “government edict.”

(With inputs from Associated Press)