US President Donald Trump on Tuesday intensified his confrontation with the nation’s leading universities, threatening to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status if it failed to comply with broad federal oversight measures.
The threat is the latest escalation in Mr Trump’s push to reshape the running of elite academic institutions, which he accuses of harbouring ideological bias and failing to curb anti-Semitism on campuses. The US government froze $2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard University, the oldest and wealthiest university in the country, after the school rejected a series of demands from the White House.
The effects will be felt most immediately by researchers at the Ivy League school and its partner institutions.
The measures, which call for sweeping changes to how Harvard is governed, its hiring practices and admissions procedures, build on an April 3 directive that ordered the university to shut down its diversity offices and co-operate with immigration screenings for international students.
Mr Trump said Harvard “should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity” if “it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist-inspired/supporting sickness”.
In a letter to students and faculty, Harvard president Alan Garber said the university would not comply, calling the demands an overreach. “Harvard does not negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights,” he wrote. Mr Garber said the school was “open to new information and different perspectives” but would not agree to demands that “go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration”.
“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,” he said.
Mr Garber’s letter came after federal officials placed $9 billion in funding to Harvard and its affiliates under review, marking the administration’s first formal set of demands.
An MIT faculty member told The National that they felt invigorated to see Harvard pushing back. Former president Barack Obama said Harvard had “set an example” by rejecting “an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom”.
Acting Columbia University president Claire Shipman also stated late on Monday that the university would not agree to any federal conditions that “compromise its independence and autonomy as an educational institution”.
On March 21, the university, the centre of the pro-Palestinian protests, agreed to a set of conditions laid out by the Trump administration as a basis for resuming negotiations over the restoration of $400 million in federal funding that was revoked in March. These included banning certain types of masks, giving campus security officers the authority to arrest and remove individuals, and placing the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department under academic receivership.
A Princeton University professor criticised the Trump administration’s response to campus protests as “much too aggressive” and “crude”, warning it threatens academic freedom and free speech, in comments to The National. The professor acknowledged ideological bias on campuses but opposed government intervention.
There is a monoculture that “creates an environment where certain people don’t feel comfortable, like conservative Christians and Zionists, now because of Hamas”, they said. Asked why more faculty members haven’t spoken publicly, the Princeton professor said: “We’re punished for it. There’s widespread censorship and pressure to stay silent from those who disagree with the dominant campus ideology.”
The controversy follows a wave of student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, which erupted across US campuses last year. Some demonstrations escalated into confrontations with police. Mr Trump and other Republicans have accused protesters of supporting Hamas, which the US designates as a terrorist organisation and was responsible for the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
In March, the US Department of Education launched investigations into 60 colleges and universities over alleged failures to address anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination. A Rutgers professor interviewed by The National said the Palestinian cause has become “a Trojan horse” on campuses.
“It explodes the liberal coalition that includes mainstream Zionists … which then cannot fight on these other fronts,” the professor said. “The US is no longer a safe environment for international students,” said the Rutgers professor, who is now considering leaving the country due to the current climate.
