CAMBRIDGE, April 15: Harvard on Monday rejected numerous demands from the Trump administration that it said would cede control of the school to a conservative government portraying universities as dangerously leftist. Within hours of the university’s stand, the administration of President Donald Trump announced a freeze on $2.3 billion in federal funding to the school.

The funding freeze follows the administration’s review of $9 billion in federal contracts and grants to Harvard, launched as part of a broader crackdown on what it says is antisemitism on college campuses during pro-Palestinian protests over the past 18 months.

A Department of Education task force on combating antisemitism accused Harvard of having a “troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges – that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws.”

This escalation intensifies a growing dispute between the Trump administration and elite universities, raising concerns about academic freedom and freedom of speech. The administration has already frozen hundreds of millions in federal funding to multiple institutions, demanding they change policies and address alleged failures to combat campus antisemitism.

Deportation proceedings have begun against some detained foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while visas for hundreds of others have been canceled.

Harvard President Alan Garber, in a public letter Monday, said the Department of Education’s demands would allow the federal government “to control the Harvard community” and threaten the school’s values as a private institution “devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge.”

“No government – 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,” Garber stated.

The controversy over antisemitism erupted before Trump returned to office, following pro-Palestinian student protests last year after the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent military response in Gaza.

White House spokesman Harrison Fields said Monday that Trump was “working to Make Higher Education Great Again by ending unchecked anti-Semitism and ensuring federal taxpayer dollars do not fund Harvard’s support of dangerous racial discrimination or racially motivated violence.”

On Friday, the education department accused Harvard of failing to meet both intellectual and civil rights obligations that justify federal investment. It demanded that Harvard reduce the influence of faculty, staff, and students “more committed to activism than scholarship” and implement an external audit of each department to ensure “viewpoint diversity.”

The department’s letter also called on Harvard to, by August, admit students and hire faculty strictly based on merit, ending preferences based on race, color, or national origin. The university must also screen international students “to prevent admitting students hostile to American values” and report foreign students who violate conduct rules to federal immigration authorities.

In response, a group of Harvard professors filed a lawsuit last week to block the federal review of nearly $9 billion in contracts and grants. Meanwhile, the administration is reportedly considering imposing a consent decree on Columbia University, legally binding it to follow federal antisemitism policies. Columbia has already faced a $400 million suspension in federal funding and grants, prompting lawsuits from some of its faculty members.

President Garber argued the administration’s demand to “audit” the viewpoints of students, faculty, and staff in search of those opposed to Trump’s ideology violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights.

“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber declared. He emphasized that while Harvard is committed to combating antisemitism, “these ends will not be achieved by assertions of power, unmoored from the law, to control teaching and learning at Harvard and to dictate how we operate.”

Earlier this year, Harvard reached a settlement to provide greater protections for Jewish students, resolving two lawsuits accusing the university of allowing antisemitism to fester on campus.

To offset the financial strain caused by the funding freeze, Harvard is now working to borrow $750 million from Wall Street.