Harvard University’s professors sued the Trump administration on April 11 after it threatened to withhold nearly $9 billion in grants and contracts if the university fails to adopt the administration’s required structural changes.
The Harvard faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) filed a lawsuit alleging that the administration’s action represents an “unlawful and unprecedented misuse of federal funding and civil rights enforcement authority to undermine academic freedom and free speech” on a university’s campus.
According to the court filing, the university received a letter from the administration on April 3 outlining the “non-exhaustive preconditions” it must meet in order to keep its government funding, following an investigation into the university’s failures to address anti-Semitism on campus.
Among the requirements are a review of programs that fuel anti-Semitic harassment on campus. The stated reason for the requirements is to “improve viewpoint diversity“ and ”end ideological capture” within the university. Harvard was also required to enact a ban on masks during protests and eliminate all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, according to the lawsuit.
It stated that the administration threatened to terminate at least $255.6 million in contracts and place more than $8.7 billion in multiyear grant commitments to Harvard University and its affiliates under review unless the university agrees to implement the proposed changes.
“Harvard, like all American universities, depends on federal funding to conduct its academic research. Threats like these are an existential ‘gun to the head’ for a university,” the lawsuit states.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said the administration is working to end “unchecked anti-Semitism” and ensure taxpayer money is not used to support “dangerous racial discrimination or racially motivated violence.”
“Harvard or any institution that wishes to violate Title VI is, by law, not eligible for federal funding,” Fields said in an emailed statement.
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