Harvard can right the wrongs: defending the university against anti-Semitism in the government and the court of the supreme court

The university’s defiance of demands that it change hiring, admissions and other policies prompted the Trump administration to freeze more than 2 billion dollars in grants and contracts.

“No government,” Garber wrote, “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.”

“While some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combatting antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulations of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard,” she said.

Many college leaders are worried that the administration will move beyond grants and contracts for research in a wide range of fields and threaten their tax-exempt status. Trump confirmed the fears with his comments today.

University leaders told NPR it has been a struggle to cope with demands from the federal government while trying to focus on the wellbeing of their students, and education.

In March, the federal government said the multi-agency task force was conducting a “comprehensive review” of $9 billion in federal contracts and “multi-year grant commitments” to Harvard.

Harvard has put its reputation in jeopardy because of its failure to protect students from anti-Semitic discrimination and promote divisive ideologies over free inquiry. “Harvard can right these wrongs,” she added, “and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus.”

Harvard’s lawyers wrote that the requested changes were in violation of the university’s First Amendment rights and exceeded the legal limits of the government’s authority to enforce civil rights laws.

The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism responded toHarvard’s lawyers’ rejection of the administration’s demands.

Tax Exemptions as Political Entities: Why Universities Shouldn’t Close Their Eyes: The Response to the President’s Teaser Letter

The statement said that the disruption of learning that has plagued campuses is unacceptable. “It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support.”

Asked for a response late Monday, a Harvard spokesperson referred back to Garber’s letter, which noted that: “For the government to retreat from these partnerships now risks not only the health and well-being of millions of individuals, but also the economic security and vitality of our nation.”

“Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’” Trump said so in a Truth Social post.

The administration responded within hours, freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants and multi-year contracts to Harvard, much of it intended for research on a wide range of subjects.

Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, an organization that represents more than 1,600 colleges and universities, said that by taking the lead, Harvard paved the way for other institutions to oppose the administration’s demands.

“If Harvard stood up,” Mitchell said, “it would have sent a chill across the higher education community that would have hampered the ability of other institutions to say where that red line is.”

In March, the government announced that 60 universities were under investigation by the U.S. Education Department for allegedly failing to protect Jewish students.

In his speech in Florida in 2023, Trump pledged to choke off money to schools he said were helping Marxists assault our American heritage and Western civilization. “The days of subsidizing communist indoctrination in our colleges will soon be over.”

The administration’s moves have been characterized by the former President as an “unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom“.

Mitchell said that the catalog of horrors was a thick one. There are a lot of things that the administration can do to throw institutions off balance. And tax-exempt status is certainly one of them.”

Tax-exempt organizations include colleges and universities. They are part of a group that has charity, religious institutions and some political organizations.

Republicans want to change the tax exemptions in higher education. In 2017, Congress passed a 1.4 percent tax on university endowments, which affected many of the nation’s elite institutions.