Washington (AP) -The Trump administration has given a list of Harvard University’s claims to receive grants and contracts of almost 9 billion US dollars.
In a letter to Harvard’s President on Thursday, three federal authorities outlined the requirements that were described as necessary for a “continued financial relationship” on the government. It is similar to a request letter that at Columbia University led to cuts at the risk of billions of dollars.
Some alumni and faculty members ask Harvard to push back and to decrypt state intervention as an attack on academic freedom.
The government’s letter is a “dominance test”, not an attempt to combat anti -Semitism, said Kirsten Weld, Professor of Harvard history and president of the Campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
“If Harvard, the richest university on the planet is concerned, the Task Force will not disappear – it will simply return with additional requirements, just like a school yard,” said Weld in a statement. “Harvard has to contest this obviously illegal attack before the courts.”
Harvard is the fifth Ivy League School, which aims in a pressure campaign by the administration that also holds the federal financing of the University of Pennsylvania, Brown and Princeton to force compliance with their agenda.
The letter describes Harvard’s federal money as a taxpayer investment based on performance. Harvard “basically failed to protect American students and faculties from anti -Semitic violence and harassment,” and has to take immediate measures to maintain his financing, the letter says.
Harvard also did not comment on the letter.
The letter requires a ban on facial masks, a claim made in Columbia, and aims at pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have sometimes worn masks to hide their identity. Harvard also has to clarify his speech policy of the campus, which limit the time, the place and the kind of protests and other activities.
The academic departments in Harvard that “anti -Semitic nuisance) must be checked and changed in order to fix the bias and improve the Viewpoint variety, the letter says. It does not issue a campus department and does not order a change of leadership, as the officials of the Trump administration for the department for study department in Columbia.
The demands are generally less prescriptive than the Columbia Ultimatum, whereby mainly extensive changes are required that focus on “permanent, structural reforms”, the letter says. It also does not offer a deadline, while Columbia received about a week to keep them.
In a letter to university director on Thursday, a group of Alumni said that Harvard should “legally deny and refuse to meet illegal demands that threaten the academic freedom and self -administration of the university”.
“It is a time for courage, not for the surrender,” said Anurima Bhargava, one of the alumni behind the letter. “This is an illegal attack and an attempt to force Harvard by threatening the institution’s elixir of life, namely its researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs and scientists.”
Some others supported the move. Alexander “Shabbos” Kestenbaum, Harvard Divinity School graduate, which is suing the university over Campus Anti -Semitism, said Trump’s Republican administration has the right to endanger the money.
“In the same way as the Federal Government threatened to withhold funds from racist school districts that refused to integrate, the powers of the wallet is the last instrument that Harvard provides for the treatment of all students with equality and justice,” Kestenbaum wrote in an opinion for the Criminal Supreme Student newspaper.
Some demands in the letter correspond to Trump’s political agenda, but seem to be less directly connected to the examination of anti -Semitism.
It contains commands to adopt “merit -based” approvals and attitude of guidelines and to remove all preferences based on breed, religion, gender or other characteristics. Harvard also has to work to end programs for diversity, equity and inclusion that teach the students and the faculty “judge raw racial and identity stereotypes,” the letter says.
The letter separately says that Harvard must comply with a federal law that requires the disclosure of foreign gifts and contracts.
It was sent by General Services Administration, the Education Department and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Harvard announced on Monday that the university is exposed to a review to determine the authorization for contracts of $ 255 million and grants of more than $ 8 billion.
With a campus message, Harvard President Alan Garber replied that the school had “raised considerable efforts to combat anti -Semitism” and would provide the government a complete bookkeeping.
___
Associated Press Reporter Michael Casey contributed to this report by Boston.
___
The educational cover of Associated Press receives financial support from several private foundations. The AP is only responsible for all content. Find the standards of AP for working with philanthropias, a list of supporters and financed coverage areas at Ap.org.
