Harvard University has chosen battle with the Trump administration.
Harvard became the first university on Monday to openly reject the administration’s demands to change its policies, leading the federal government to pause $2 billion in contracts with the Ivy League school and President Trump to threaten its tax-exempt status.
The higher education world will watch closely as the nation’s oldest and richest school almost certainly takes the federal government to court even as the administration looks for more ways to raise the pressure against the school and others it has accused of failing to protect their students from antisemitism.
“It seems like Harvard is clearly taking a stand. My assumption here is that they’re going to try to pursue some sort of legal action like a lawsuit to defend their funding and, basically, their independence as an institution,” said Veronica Goodman, interim team lead for higher education policy at the Center for American Progress.
“I hope that other institutions of higher education sort of band together with each other in a strength [in] numbers approach to this bullying,” Goodman added.
The university’s lawyers sent a letter to the administration on Monday rejecting a Friday communication that demanded changes to the university’s leadership structure, student disciplinary policies, admissions and hiring practices. The administration also requested that the university eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and turn in a quarterly report to the federal government until 2028 on its progress, among other things.
“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 said in a message to the Harvard community about the university’s defiance.
Along with the funding pause, the president floated Tuesday taking away the university’s tax-exempt status, although it is not clear he has the power to make that decision unilaterally.
“Perhaps 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?’” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”
Harvard’s faculty had already filed legal action on Friday after the Trump administration’s demands were sent to the university, with one from the school itself likely to follow.
The faculty’s lawsuit echoes one that was filed by faculty of Columbia University, for which the Trump administration had paused $400 million in federal contracts.
“Academic freedom is a core protected First Amendment value, and the Constitution prohibits the administration from using funding as a cudgel to take over private universities. So, we think these suits are quite important to higher education broadly,” said Rachel Goodman, lead counsel in the Columbia faculty’s lawsuit.
Columbia last month became the first school to concede to the government’s demands and agreed to changes its policies in an attempt to have the $400 million in funding restored. But the Trump administration has not lifted the pause and has in fact taken away even more money after the concession.
“Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions — rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect,” former President Obama, who attended Columbia as an undergrad before going to Harvard Law School, said in a post on the social platform X.
Trump has long pledged to get rid of “woke” culture in America’s colleges and universities, which Republicans accuse of being a bedrock of “leftist ideology,” making Harvard a prime target, though it is far from the only one.
Prestigious schools including the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and Cornell University have all seen their federal funding hit by Trump over either their alleged inaction on antisemitism or their policies regarding transgender athletes.
More broadly, the Department of Education has issued a letter to colleges saying if DEI wasn’t eliminated federal funds would be cut from their institutions.
When the fight came to Harvard, some higher education leaders looked on expectantly, hoping such a rich and storied institution would have the best shot at taking on the federal government.
Representatives from Stanford and Yale universities were among those who signed letters of support for Harvard’s fight against the Trump administration Tuesday.
“Universities need to address legitimate criticisms with humility and openness. But the way to bring about constructive change is not by destroying the nation’s capacity for scientific research, or through the government taking command of a private institution,” Stanford President Jonathan Levin and Provost Jenny Martinez wrote in a statement.
Despite its $50 billion endowment, much of which is legally obligated to go toward certain programs and cannot be moved, Harvard will feel the pinch of Trump’s cuts.
More than a month ago, the university implemented a hiring freeze, pointing to “substantial financial uncertainties driven by rapidly shifting federal policies” under Trump.
“I’m not a fan of the implementation of policies that are hugely disruptive to operations. I mean, just for the sake of being disruptive, and that kind of feels like what this is,” said Beth Akers, a senior fellow focused on higher education at the American Enterprise Institute.
“My hope is that a court will intervene to prevent the funds from being withdrawn, so that we can hash out whether or not the administration does have this authority or give them an opportunity to use more appropriate policy channels for getting Harvard to operate in a way that they feel is in compliance with federal law,” Akers added.
