Harvard University said it had filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a federal freeze on more than $2.2 billion (€1.9 billion) in grants after the school refused to comply with Trump administration orders to limit on-campus activity.
In an April 11 letter, the Trump administration called for sweeping reforms to the university's governance and leadership, as well as changes to admissions policies.
The letter also called for the university to reconsider its views on campus diversity and to stop recognizing some student clubs.
Administrators say universities allowed anti-Semitism to run rampant during campus protests last year against the Gaza conflict.
Harvard President Alan Garber said the university would not comply with the demands.
Soon after, the government froze billions of dollars in federal funding.
“The government has not found and cannot find any reasonable connection between the anti-Semitic issues and the frozen funding for medical, scientific, technological and other research designed to save American lives, advance the nation’s success, protect American security and maintain America’s status as a global leader in innovation,” the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, says.
The lawsuit also stated: “The state has failed to recognize the significant impact that an indefinite freeze on billions of dollars in federal research funding would have on Harvard's research programs, the beneficiaries of that research, and the national interest in American innovation and progress.”
Within hours, the White House responded.
“The trough of federal aid to institutions like Harvard that enrich their overpaid bureaucrats with taxes from disadvantaged American families is coming to an end,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in an email Monday.
“Taxpayer funds are a privilege, and Harvard does not meet the basic conditions necessary to access that privilege.”
For the Trump administration, Harvard has become the first major obstacle in its efforts to impose changes at universities that Republicans say have become breeding grounds for liberalism and anti-Semitism.
Part of that plan includes cutting research funding, which has fueled scientific advances but has become a convenient pressure tool for the Trump administration.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
