Harvard University President Alan Garber on Tuesday urged schools to stand “firm” against the Trump administration — a day after the commander-in-chief threatened to yank even more federal cash from the Ivy League.
Garber told NPR that Trump’s war on the elite school and his decision to freeze billions in federal grants due, in part, to antisemitism on campus was “perplexing.”
“What is perplexing is the measures that they have taken to address these that don’t even hit the same people that they believe are causing the problems,” Garber said.
“Why cut off research funding? Sure, it hurts Harvard, but it hurts the country because after all, the research funding is not a gift. The research funding is given to universities and other research institutions to carry out work — research work — that the federal government designates as high-priority work. It is work that they want done. They are paying to have that work conducted.”
He added: “Shutting off that work does not help the country, even as it punishes Harvard, and it is hard to see the link between that and, say, antisemitism.”
It comes after Trump on Monday said he wanted to yank $3 billion in federal grants away from a “very antisemitic” university to instead invest in trade schools.
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