The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has terminated nearly $3 million in grants for Harvard University in the latest clash with the Ivy League school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump and his administration have ripped into Ivy League institutions like Harvard and Columbia in the wake of national demonstrations and protests amid Israel’s war with Hamas.
The White House has accused the Ivy League universities of allowing antisemitism on campus grounds. The White House also initially withheld $400 million in federal funds from New York City’s Columbia and said it would not reinstate funding if the school did not change its policies.
Columbia was the epicenter of campus protests last year amid the war in the Gaza Strip. Students across the country demanded that universities and the federal government sever ties with the Israeli government in protest of its military assaults on Palestinians.
Columbia ultimately caved to Trump’s demands last month and announced a slew of new security measures.
What To Know
In a press release by DHS, Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the department terminated $2.7 million in funding and ordered Harvard to “Prove Compliance with Foreign Student Requirements.”
This comes after the university defied the administration’s list of demands that included discontinuing its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, reforming student discipline policies and implementing a mask ban.
The DHS press release says that Noem “wrote a scathing letter demanding detailed records on Harvard’s foreign student visa holders’ illegal and violent activities by April 30, 2025, or face immediate loss of Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification.”
Noem went on to rip the leadership at Harvard as “spineless,” saying the university “fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security.”
The release notes that it canceled the $800,303 Implementation Science for Targeted Violence Prevention grant because it painted conservatives as “far-right dissidents” in a study.
DHS also canceled the $1,934,902 Blue Campaign Program Evaluation and Violence Advisement grant because it “funded Harvard’s public health propaganda,” the release says.
But as Newsweek previously reported, Harvard has the largest higher-education endowment in the nation, at almost $52 billion, per the 2024 National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO)-Commonfund Study of Endowments. Some have questioned why schools don’t tap into endowments to counteract the funding cuts, while others don’t think it’s a good idea.
“Nonprofit endowments are not savings accounts or rainy day funds,” Liz Clark, vice president of policy and research for NACUBO, previously told Newsweek. She added that endowments are from donors who specified targets of need, like financial aid of scholarships and pushing scientific research.
Some colleges may also have reserve funds to offset Washington’s “turbulence,” Clark said, rather than attempting to reallocate endowments.
What People Are Saying
A Harvard University spokesperson in an email to Newsweek on Wednesday: “Harvard is aware of the Department of Homeland Security’s letter regarding grant cancellations and scrutiny of foreign student visas, which—like the Administration’s announcement of the freeze of $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts, and reports of the revocation of Harvard’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status—follows on the heels of our statement that Harvard will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. We continue to stand by that statement. We will continue to comply with the law and expect the Administration to do the same.
“Harvard values the rule of law and expects all members of our community to comply with University policies and applicable legal standards. If federal action is taken against a member of our community, we expect it will be based on clear evidence, follow established legal procedures, and respect the constitutional rights afforded to all individuals.”
Harvard, in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday: “‘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.’ – President Alan Garber”
Michigan GOP Congresswoman Lisa McClain posted to X on Wednesday: “.@POTUS gave Harvard a chance to address antisemitism, but this ‘elite’ university seems to think they’re above the law. NEWSFLASH: Receiving federal funding is a privilege, not a right.”
Trump, on Truth Social Wednesday morning: “Everyone knows that Harvard has ‘lost its way.’ They hired, from New York (Bill D) and Chicago (Lori L), at ridiculously high salaries/fees, two of the WORST and MOST INCOMPETENT mayors in the history of our Country, to ‘teach’ municipal management and government. These two Radical Left fools left behind two cities that will take years to recover from their incompetence and evil.”
Trump continued, “Harvard has been hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called ‘future leaders.’ Look just to the recent past at their plagiarizing President, who so greatly embarrassed Harvard before the United States States [sic] Congress. When it got so bad that they just couldn’t take it anymore, they moved this grossly inept woman into another position, teaching, rather than firing her ON THE SPOT.”
Concluding, the president said, “Since then much else has been found out about her, but she remains in place. Many others, like these Leftist dopes, are teaching at Harvard, and because of that, Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World’s Great Universities or Colleges. Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
What Happens Next
It is likely that the Trump administration will continue canceling grants and additional funding for Harvard.
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