The administration of the American president Donald Trump will examine billions of dollars of federal funding for the University of Harvard in the middle of a continuous repression of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on American campuses.
This announcement comes in the midst of similar negotiations between the Trump administration and Columbia University more than $ 400 million in federal funding for the Ivy League School based in New York. Columbia recently accepted a series of requests from the administration in order to flow the funds – but the US government has not confirmed if he would restore the contracts and subsidies that she had taken a break.
Here is more about what’s going on with Harvard:
Why does the Trump administration assess Harvard funding?
On Monday, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Social Services and the General Services Administration published a statement saying that they will examine federal contracts and subsidies at Harvard University.
The press release added that the joint working group to combat anti -Semitism will examine $ 255.6 million in contracts between the federal government and Harvard and its affiliates. It also examines more than $ 8.7 billion in multiple subsidies commitments to Harvard and its affiliates.
The working group was created in response to the Executive Decree of January 29 of Trump entitled “Additional measures to combat anti -Semitism,” the Ministry of Justice announced on February 3.
The decree officially aims to target anti -Semitism – which has seen a peak in the United States and worldwide after October 7, 2023, when Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups attacked Israel and resulted in more than 1,100 people. Since then, the brutal war of Israel against Gaza has killed more than 50,000 people in the enclave.
However, in practice, the order has thrown the grounds for the Trump administration to request the expulsion of several international students who participated in pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus in the United States last year-without any clear evidence linking them to anti-Semitism or pro-Hamas activities.
This decree also served as the basis for the Trump administration to target universities which, according to them, did not do enough to suppress the demonstrations.
“The first priority of the working group will be to eliminate anti -Semitic harassment in schools and on university campuses,” the Ministry of Justice said in the press release.
“Harvard’s inability to protect students on campus against anti -Semitic discrimination – while promoting division ideologies in relation to a free survey – has put its reputation in serious danger”, communication quotes the Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.
“Harvard can repair these wrongs and eat at a campus dedicated to academic excellence and the search for truth, where all students feel safe on his campus,” said McMahon.
What happened to Harvard?
On April 24, 2024, demonstrators of pro-Palestine students set up a camp on a campus site called Harvard Yard in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The Harvard camp, called Harvard de la Palestine Occupied (hoop), was one of several camps of this type that came to a range of American universities. They demanded, among other things, that their universities are deployed from arms companies and companies associated with Israel.
On May 6, Harvard president Alan Garber published a statement saying that Hoop had disrupted educational activities of the Institute. “The right to freedom of expression, including protest and dissent, is vital for the work of the Research University. But it is not unlimited,” said Garber.
“The camp promotes the votes of a few on the rights of many of those who have experienced a disruption of how they learn and work at a critical moment in the semester. I call those who participate in the camp to end the occupation of Harvard Yard. ”
On May 14, university demonstrators and students announced that they had entered into an agreement to end the camp. However, the two parties published different statements, the students saying that Harvard had accepted their requests and the university saying that it had only opened up a dialogue on requests.
For example, with regard to Israel’s divestment demand, Harvard said he had agreed to be more transparent with his students on the operation of his endowment.
Even before the camps began, in January 2024, Garber set up two presidential working groups on the campus: one dedicated to anti -Semitism combat and the other dedicated to the bias of fighting Muslims and Arabs.
On March 29, 82 of the 118 active professors of the Harvard Law School signed a letter addressed to the student organization, accusing the federal government of retribution against law firms and lawyers representing customers and causes that the Trump administration is opposed.
Trump signed presidential actions targeting law firms linked to Robert Mueller, a former special American advisor who investigated Russian ties in the presidential campaign of Trump in 2016. Trump orders seek to restrict lawyers for lawyers and federal courts.
What will happen if Trump cuts Harvard funding?
On Monday, Harvard Garber president published a statement in response to the Trump administration’s announcement concerning the funding assessment.
“If this funding is arrested, it will stop vital research and jeopardize important scientific and innovation research,” said Garber.
But the Trump administration suggested, in a statement, that Harvard was involved in negotiations with the government on its requests.
“We are happy that Harvard is ready to engage with us on these objectives,” said Sean Keveney, member of the working group and General Health and Social Services, in the press release on Monday.
What happened to Columbia University?
Columbia became the epicenter of the pro -Palestine demonstrations of the campus in 2024, after the first camp on April 17 of last year – inspiring similar camps in universities across the country.
Columbia demonstrators occupied Hamilton Hall, a university building on campus on April 30, after which the university called on New York police to repress its demonstrators.
In February of this year, the Trump administration revoked $ 400 million in federal funding in Columbia, quoting “the failure of the protection of Jewish students against anti -Semitic harassment”.
On March 8, immigration agents and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Mahmoud Khalil, 29, a recent graduate of Columbia who was a leading figure in the university negotiations during demonstrations of the campus of last year. The American government is now trying to expel Khalil, who held a green card during his arrest and is currently held in an ice transformation center in Jena, Louisiana.
On March 5, the American State Department revoked the Ranjani Srinivasan visa, an urban doctoral student at Urbanism at Columbia University. Four days later, Columbia did not register it. Srinivasan flew to Canada on March 11 before it could be expelled.
On March 13 of this year, the joint working group to combat anti -Semitism published a letter to Columbia, describing nine prerequisite for negotiations to restore funding. On March 18, the university listed new rules in a note sent to the Trump administration, accepting government requests.
Some of these rules decree that students who protest or demonstrate will have to present university identification if they are invited to cope, and that masks will be prohibited in order to hide his identity. However, facial masks are always authorized for religious or medical reasons.
Columbia also said that he had hired 36 security agents with special powers to arrest students “if necessary”, adding that the university also has a long -standing relationship with New York police and is based on force for additional security aid.
In addition, a new senior provost will oversee the departments of Columbia offering lessons in the Middle East.