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The president of Harvard has no plans of backing down in the institution’s defiance of the Trump administration, arguing the government’s threat to freeze $2.2 billion in federal funding violates constitutional rights.
“We are defending what I believe is one of the most important lynchpins of the American economy and way of life, our universities,” Alan Garber, who has held the post for over a year, told NBC during an interview aired on Wednesday. “We cannot compromise on basic principles like defense of our First Amendment rights.”
The administration has targeted college campuses across America in recent months, revoking students’ visas and attempting to defund universities over pro-Palestine activism — canceling funding forColumbiaand freezing funding forBrown,Cornell, and Northwesternover what the government says is antisemitism on campuses.
Garber, who is Jewish, said that antisemitism at Harvard is a “real problem” that they are trying to address, but that “putting that research at jeopardy because of claims of antisemitism seems to us to be misguided.” He told the outlet: “The effort to address antisemitism will not be advanced by shutting off funding.”
Although Harvard previously agreed to thedefinitionof antisemitism promoted largely by the right, it pushed back against the administration’s attempts to seize greater control bydemandingthe university allow the government to audit who it hires, fires, and admits into the school or risk a freeze of $2.2 billion in grants. “That is what we are objecting to,” said Garber.
On Monday, Harvard filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration and accused it of violating the First Amendment. “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,” Garber said in a statement at the time. Garber warned that research for child cancer, s outbreaks, and easing the pain of wounded soldiers on the battlefield will be at risk, as well as future “opportunities to reduce the risk of multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease.”
When asked by NBC if this was a fight he could win, the head of Harvard University replied: “I don’t know the answer to this question, but the stakes are so high that we have no choice.”
Trump lashed out at the university on Thursday. “Harvard is an Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institution, as are numerous others, with students being accepted from all over the World that want to rip our Country apart. The place is a Liberal mess, allowing a certain group of crazed lunatics to enter and exit the classroom and spew fake ANGER AND HATE. It is truly horrific!” the president wrote on Truth Social, adding that the esteemed institution is “a threat to Democracy.”
