Update. After #Harvard said 𝙣𝙤 to the #Trump admin …
https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2025/the-promise-of-american-higher-education/

… and took the further step of suing the Trump admin …
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/04/21/harvard-sues-trump-administration-funding-antisemitism/

… and after independent lawyers and law professors said its lawsuit was strong …
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/4/23/legal-analysis-harvard-trump-lawsuit/

… and after its strong stance stirred student, faculty, staff, alumni, and donor enthusiasm …
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/us/harvard-donors-trump.html

… some other donors, all wealthy, "implored the [university] to slow down and negotiate."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/business/harvard-trump-deal.html

#Academia #Universities #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

Update. " #Harvard University sued the #Trump administration in federal court Monday…The lawsuit…seeks to block the Trump administration from withholding federal funding 'as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard.' Alan M. Garber, the president of Harvard, said in a message to the university community Monday that the Trump administration’s actions are unlawful and beyond the government’s authority."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/04/21/harvard-sues-trump-administration-funding-antisemitism/

PS. Exactly. Every university subject to this kind of unlawful pressure should sue. Same for law firms.

#Academia #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

Update. " #NIH freezes funds to #Harvard and four other universities, but can’t tell them."
https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-freezes-funds-harvard-and-four-other-universities-can-t-tell-them
( #paywalled)

"After freezing all grants to #Columbia University last week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is now stopping grant and contract payments to Harvard University and four other universities [ #Brown, #Northwestern, #Cornell, #WeillCornell Medical School]…The move will both block new funding and halt payments to investigators currently working on NIH projects…The Department of Health and Human Services ( #HHS)…instructed NIH staff not to provide any communication to these institutions or to Columbia about whether the funds are frozen or why, according to the email."

#Academia #DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

New #Trump admin position on its letter to #Harvard: It was a mistake but we're standing by it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/business/trump-harvard-letter-mistake.html

Trump : Harvard
:: Trump : Kilmar Abrego Garcia

#Academia #Trump #Universities
@academicchatter

Update. Here's the letter of demands from the #Trump admin to #Columbia.
https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/6d3c124d8e20212d/85dec154-full.pdf

Note that it's much shorter and less extreme than the letter to #Harvard.
https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Letter-Sent-to-Harvard-2025-04-11.pdf

There are probably many reasons why. Thinking out loud:

* Trump and Trumpists had a long-standing animosity against Harvard.
* Columbia's capitulation emboldened them to reach for more.
* Harvard receives more federal money than Columbia, giving Trump more leverage.

#Academia
@academicchatter

Kudos to #Harvard for standing up to the #Trump admin.

Friday, April 11, the Trump admin expanded its list of demands to Harvard. (Note that Harvard made the govt letter public on the Harvard website.)
https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Letter-Sent-to-Harvard-2025-04-11.pdf

Today, Harvard President Alan Garber issued a public letter to the university community, explaining the latest Trump demands and the university's 𝙣𝙤 answer. "The University will not negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights."
https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2025/the-promise-of-american-higher-education/

Also see Harvard's official answer to the Trump admin, through its lawyers. "Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms as an agreement in principle."
https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Harvard-Response-2025-04-14.pdf

#Academia #AcademicFreedom #Censorship #DefendResearch #Universities #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter