Harvard No Longer Eligible for New Grants From Federal Government: White House
Harvard University will no longer be eligible for government grants, a senior White House official said on May 5.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon will send a letter to Harvard President Alan Garber on Monday night to inform the university that it is not eligible for federal grants until it makes significant changes to its management, the official said.
The letter will cite low public confidence in higher education, Harvard’s alleged failure to combat anti-Semitism on campus, and take issue with the virtually untaxed status of Harvard’s significant financial endowment.
On Friday, President Donald Trump threatened to go after Harvard’s tax-exempt status.
The Trump administration then froze $2.26 billion from the university, with nearly $9 billion in funding set aside for Harvard put under review.
The administration had also pushed for Harvard to disclose information about potential foreign ties, with the Department of Homeland Security threatening to remove the university’s ability to enroll foreign students.
“Especially disturbing is the reported willingness of some students to treat each other with disdain rather than sympathy, eager to criticize and ostracize, particularly when afforded the anonymity and distance that social media provides,” Garber wrote in a letter to the campus community.
“A grant is at our discretion, and they are really not behaving well. So it’s too bad,” Trump said.
“The message that it sends to the educational community would be a very dire one, which suggests that political disagreements could be used as a basis to pose what might be an existential threat to so many educational institutions.”
The official also accused the university of abandoning rigor and academic excellence, citing a plagiarism scandal involving former Harvard President Claudine Gay.
All future funds to the university will be at the Trump administration’s discretion, the official said.
