➤ Harvard University is refusing to meet demands made by President Donald Trump’s government, even though the government has threatened to cut off billions of dollars from the school. Harvard’s president says the university won’t give up its independence or rights.
Harvard University is refusing to meet demands made by US President Donald Trump’s government, even though the government has threatened to cut off billions of dollars from the school. Harvard’s president says the university won’t give up its independence or rights.
Last year, there were protests at many American colleges over Israel’s bombing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel was responding to a brutal attack by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. But Israel’s continued bombing has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, including many civilians.
Mr. Trump has condemned these protests. He said the protests were antisemitic because they supported Palestinians instead of Israel. In the US, colleges and universities often get money from the government for research programs. In March, Mr. Trump said that universities that allowed “antisemitism” should be punished by cutting off government money.
Harvard has about $8.7 billion of this kind of government money. Losing this money would be a huge blow to the university.
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Harvard University is refusing to meet demands made by US President Donald Trump’s government, even though the government has threatened to cut off billions of dollars from the school. Harvard’s president says the university won’t give up its independence or rights.
On April 1, Mr. Trump said he supported cutting all government money to Harvard. Later, his government sent a letter to Harvard, with many demands. These demands included: dropping all DEI efforts, being stricter on protesters, changing the way it admits students and hires teachers, and giving the government more control over the running of the school.
Harvard refused to make these changes. The university said Mr. Trump was trying to punish it for the ideas that it teaches. Harvard says that the US Constitution gives it the right to teach what it wants.
On April 14, Mr. Trump’s government said it would freeze $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard.
In response, Harvard has filed a lawsuit against the government of Mr. Trump. The university says that the government has not given any good reasons for stopping the grants. Harvard claims Mr. Trump is trying to punish the school for its political beliefs by cutting off government money, and that this goes against the Constitution. Harvard added that the blocked money will cause serious problems for important scientific research.
Mr. Trump says he still wants to cut government money to Harvard, and that his government is still investigating the university.
The first meeting in Harvard’s lawsuit against the government will take place on Monday, April 28.
Harvard is the oldest university in the US, and has roughly $53 billion worth of money saved. This made it easier for the school to refuse the government’s demands.
But Harvard’s act of standing up against Mr. Trump’s government has encouraged many other colleges to do the same. Many schools are beginning to discuss ways they can work together to stand up to attacks from the government.