Trump Administration Freezes $2 Billion After Harvard Rejects Demands

The Donald Trump-led US administration said it is freezing over $2 billion in federal funds for Harvard University, hours after the institution refused to comply with a list of demands from the White House. The US administration had sent a list of demands to the university last week, which included changes to its governance, hiring practices and admissions procedures.

Accusing the White House of trying to "control" its community, Harvard on Monday became the first major US university to reject the administration's demands. According to The New York Times, the government's letter to Harvard on Friday included an extraordinary set of changes that would have ceded an unprecedented degree of control over the operations of the country's most elite university to the federal government. “Harvard has in recent years failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment,” the letter said, as quoted by The New York Times.

Rejecting the demands, Harvard President Alan Garber said that the university will not surrender its independence. Garber said the administration's demands were a political ploy. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government,” Harvard’s president said in a letter. Immediately following this response, the education department announced a freeze of $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard.