Harvard University has been hit with a $2.3bn federal funding freeze after the Ivy League institution took a stand against the Trump administration’s ongoing demands.
The freeze, representing 35.9 percent of Harvard’s $6.4bn operating expenses, immediately followed a letter on Monday from Harvard University lawyers to the Trump administration, stating that it rejected the government’s demands.
The letter, issued by Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and LLP King & Spalding LLP, said that “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”
Harvard is the first university to take a stand against the government, which said it is investigating 60 universities over allegations of antisemitism. Several Ivy League schools have already had funding threatened or cancelled.
Because the government wants (should want, its debatable rn) people to become educated and contribute to society, so they subsidize education. A lot of this money goes to research and scholarships, and while it’s questionable why Harvard needs billions from the government when they already charge out the ass, it makes sense that the government (and in theory, the taxpayers too) want more people to get good education to help the country we all live in do better. This applies for a lot of colleges and universities, not just Harvard.