The federal anti-Semitism task force said in a letter to Harvard on Tuesday that Harvard will lose grants from eight federal agencies, in addition to $2.2 billion previously frozen by the Trump administration.
The letter said Harvard has become a “breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination” and faces a “steep, arduous battle” to restore its legacy as a place of academic excellence.
“There is a dark problem on Harvard’s campus that by prioritizing the A-level rather than accountability, institutional leaders confiscated the school’s demand for taxpayer support.”
It was signed by officials from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration.
Hours after the latest cuts Tuesday, Harvard posed legal challenges to several sanctions imposed by the Trump administration in recent weeks. It is an update to the university’s April lawsuit, designed to block the initial $2.2 billion freeze.
Harvard faces escalating sanctions on the White House after becoming the first American university to openly violate government demands to limit pro-Palestinian activism and end US demands of diversity, equity and inclusive practices.
Republican Trump said he hopes Harvard loses tax exemption status and the Department of Homeland Security threatens to revoke the school’s qualification to host foreign students.
Last week, the Education Department said Harvard will not receive new federal grants until it meets the government’s requirements.
The Trump administration calls on Harvard to conduct extensive leadership, revise its admissions policies, and review its faculty and student groups to ensure that the campus becomes home to many perspectives.
These needs are part of a stress campaign targeting several other high-profile universities. The administration has cut funds to universities including Columbia, Pennsylvania and Cornell, and seeks to adhere to Trump’s agenda.
Harvard said in the revised lawsuit that many of the funds initially frozen have now been terminated and there is clearly no hope of restoring it.
The National Health Institute’s May 6 letter informed Harvard that the grant was cut against allegations of anti-Semitism on campus. It said grants are usually suspended, pending corrective action, but “corrective action is not possible here.”
The lawsuit says Harvard later received similar letters from the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture and other agencies. It tries to overturn these cuts.
Harvard President Alan Garber objected to the administration’s allegations in a letter Monday, saying Harvard was nonpartisan and took steps to take root in anti-Semitism on campus. He insisted that Harvard was complying with the law, calling federal sanctions an “illegal attempt to illegally control the basic aspects of university actions.”
Harvard has repeatedly failed to address racial discrimination and anti-Semitism on campus, the government said in a letter Tuesday. It lists the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision, strike on Harvard’s use of race during the admissions process, and a recent internal report at Harvard University detailing cases of anti-Semitic harassment.
