Officials in the Trump administration have frozen more than $2 billion in federal funding for Harvard University, after the elite school refused to agree to President Donald Trump’s demands for policy changes on diversity.
Harvard on Monday rejected the Government’s orders to end comprehensive diversity efforts in order to continue securing federal funds.
In a letter sent to Harvard and published by the University, Mr Trump’s administration ordered Harvard to immediately shutter all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programmes, offices, committees, positions, and initiatives, under whatever name. It demanded that the school “stop all DEI-based policies, including DEI-based disciplinary or speech control policies.”
It detailed that by August 2025, the University must submit to the government a report — certified for accuracy — confirming such reforms.
During his election campaign, Mr Trump unveiled his plans to ban diversity and inclusion programmes on his first day in office through a flurry of executive orders.
He previously signalled that he would end Diversity, Equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in both the federal government and in the private sector.
“I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country and that can’t be allowed,” Trump previously told Time magazine.
A Department of Education task force on combating anti-Semitism confirmed in a statement that it was freezing $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contract value to Harvard, citing a failure to fight anti-Semitism on campus.
It comes as Irish students planning to travel to the US on J1 visas were warned against “activism” in the United States by the Students Union of Ireland.
The USI said in a statement: “We call on both the US and Irish authorities to provide clarity on these issues, ensuring that students are fully aware of their rights and responsibilities while participating in the J1 programme.”
The organisation said it was “committed to supporting students in navigating these challenges, and we will continue to advocate for their safety, rights, and freedom of expression”.
White House spokesman Harrison Fields released a statement on Monday which said that Mr Trump was “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.” It follows a string of pro-Palestinian protests across American universities in the aftermath of October 7 and the ensuing war between Israel and Palestine.
In a statement, Harvard University said that it was rejecting the “unprecedented demands” being made by the federal government “to control the Harvard community.”
“They include requirements to “audit” the viewpoints of our student body, faculty, staff, and to “reduc[e] the power” of certain students, faculty, and administrators targeted because of their ideological views. We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement. The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” it said in a statement.
Harvard published the letter addressed from the administration, in which officials said that investment only made sense if Harvard fostered an environment “that produces intellectual creativity and scholarly rigour, both of which are antithetical to ideological capture.”
“Harvard has in recent years failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment. But we appreciate your expression of commitment to repairing those failures and welcome your collaboration in restoring the University to its promise,” the letter said.
“We therefore present the below provisions as the basis for an agreement in principle that will maintain Harvard’s financial relationship with the federal government. If acceptable to Harvard, this document will constitute an agreement in principle, which the parties will work in good faith to translate into a more thorough, binding settlement agreement.”
The terms of the agreement included “meaningful” governance and leadership reforms, as well as merit-based hiring reform.
“By August 2025, the University must adopt and implement merit-based hiring policies, and cease all preferences based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin throughout its hiring, promotion, compensation, and related practices among faculty, staff, and leadership.” the letter continued.
It also called for merit-based admissions reforms, calling on Harvard to “cease all preferences based on race, colour, national origin, or proxies thereof, throughout its undergraduate program, each graduate program individually, each of its professional schools, and other programs.”
The administration wanted all admissions data shall be shared with the federal government and subjected to a comprehensive audit by the federal government — with non-individualized, statistical information regarding admissions shall be made available to the public, including information about rejected and admitted students broken down by race, colour, national origin, grade point average, and performance on standardized tests.
The terms of the agreement also demanded that Harvard reform its recruitment, screening, and admissions of international students to “prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including students supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism.”
“Harvard will immediately report to federal authorities, including the Department of Homeland Security and State Department, any foreign student, including those on visas and with green cards, who commits a conduct violation,” it said.
Another demand made of the university was the reform of programmes with “egregious records of antisemitism or other bias.” It called on Harvard to commission an external party to audit programmes and departments “that fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture.”
The letter further called on Harvard to reform student discipline policies “with consistency and impartiality, and without double standards based on identity or ideology.”
“Where those policies are insufficient to prevent the disruption of scholarship, classroom learning and teaching, or other aspects of normal campus life, Harvard must develop and implement disciplinary policies sufficient to prevent those disruptions,” officials penned.
Alan Garber, President of Harvard, responded: “The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI. And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge. 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.”
In the letter, the Department of Education claimed that Harvard had “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.”