FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators rally on Cambridge Common in a protest organized by the City of Cambridge calling on Harvard leadership to resist interference at the university by the federal government in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. April 12, 2025. REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi/File Photo
Harvard University appears to have become a symbol of resistance against President Donald Trump after it vowed this week to challenge a broad set of demands from the administration.
As the oldest university in the United States, Harvard's defiance of Trump is being described as remarkable.
In a memo to Harvard students and faculty released on Monday, the university's president, Alan Garber, noted that "the administration issued an updated and expanded list of demands, warning that Harvard must comply if we intend to 'maintain [our] financial relationship with the federal government.'"
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"It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner. Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the 'intellectual conditions' at Harvard," he added.
Explaining the university's position on the matter, Garber said, "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.”
The statement received widespread applause, including from former President Barack Obama, who praised Harvard for setting "an example for other higher-ed institutions."
“Let’s hope other institutions follow suit," Obama wrote on the social platform X.
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In an article in Salon published Wednesday, political writer Amanda Marcotte said Harvard's decision to stand up to the president is notable because many other institutions who received similar demands chose to cave in.
"The appeasement politics of university administrations — most notably at Columbia, where officials agreed to a series of draconian anti-student policies after Trump threatened $400 million in federal funding. Using the blatantly disingenuous pretext of 'fighting anti-semitism,' the school caved to Trump's demands to silence campus protests with threats of student discipline and even arrest. The choice of Trump over the safety of their own students sparked public outrage, but it felt futile, as though such cowardice would be the standard for all elite schools in a second Trump term," she wrote.
Marcotte said Harvard may have understood that saying no to Trump did not "cost" them two billion dollars.
"As Columbia is learning the hard way, he was always going to find an excuse to withhold the money. Might as well not give up your dignity along with it. Compliance, however, amounted to consenting to what Stanford professor Adrian Daub calls 'a controlled demolition, with each demand a charge to knock out another pillar of academic freedom.'"
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She said Columbia administrators thought they were coming to a solution. "Instead, the White House is pushing to create federal oversight of Columbia so that a MAGA loyalist can have granular authority over the school's daily operations."
AlterNet reached out to the White House for comment.
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