Harvard refuses to give in to the demands of the Trump administration

Harvard University will not reach an agreement with the Trump administration after being threatened with the retention of $ 9 billion in federal subsidies, according to a letter sent by university lawyers on Monday.

“The University will not deliver its independence or resign of their constitutional rights,” lawyers Robert Hur and William Burck wrote to Trump administration officials. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can afford to be taken by the federal government. Consequently, Harvard will not accept the terms of the government as an agreement in principle.”

The Trump Administration has directed Harvard among dozens from other universities in what is an investigation into “anti -Semitism” on campus and the so -called diversity, equity and inclusion practices. In a letter to the president of Harvard, Alan Garber, sent on April 11, the administration threatened to retain the money from the subsidies if the university was not restructured along the lines dictated by the administration and with the supervision of the current government.

The changes requested by the Administration included ending all Dei programs, limiting admissions of foreign students, requiring the diversity of “point of view” in all programs and closing departments and teaching units that cannot meet the demands of the administration, prohibiting certain groups of students, purging departments or other entities of critics of Israel and greater sanctions for students, among other things.

Harvard’s response pointed out his commitment to combat the so -called anti -Semitism and provided a list of reforms that he made to his rules. He points out that the Administration letter “ignores Harvard’s efforts and, on the other hand, presents demands that, in contravention of the first amendment, he invades the university freedoms recognized for a long time by the Supreme Court.”

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“[The administration’s letter] Makes it clear that intention is not to work with us to address anti -Semitism in a cooperative and constructive way, “Garber wrote in a public statement Mondays. “Although some of the demands described by the Government aim to combat anti -Semitism, most represents a direct government regulation of ‘intellectual conditions’ in Harvard.”

This “goes beyond the power of the federal government,” Garber wrote, violating the first amendment and exceeding “the legal limits of the government authority under Title VI”, of the Civil Rights Law.

While Harvard’s letter does not affirm that the University will go to the Court to fight against the threats of the administration, firmly implies that the law is on the side of the university. It is also notable that university lawyers are conservative with ties with Donald Trump. Hur was appointed Maryland’s US prosecutor for Maryland in 2018, and Burck is an external ethics advisor to Trump’s company and is a member of the News Corporation Board, father of News.

Since he assumed the position, Trump has launched an attack against universities and schools under the pretexts of fighting anti -Semitism, Dei and transgender rights. The Department of Education has launched dozens of research in universities throughout the country and threatened the withdrawal of hundreds of billions of dollars in research grants that help finance scientific research throughout the country.

In March, Columbia University became The first school to hold an agreement With the Trump administration that allowed the Government to supervise the critical functions of the school, even placing the departments of Studies of the Middle East, in southern Asia and African in an effective judicial administrator.