The Trump Administration is declaring Harvard University ineligible for new research grants from the federal government in the latest escalation between the White House and the Ivy League school.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon will send the university a letter warning that access to additional federal funding would not be possible until “they demonstrate responsible management,” according to an administration official who previewed the action on the condition of anonymity.
Harvard would need to enter a negotiation with the administration to resume eligibility, the official added. The official said the move could affect over $1 billion annually, though the administration did not immediately detail the figure.
Harvard has come under fire repeatedly from President Donald Trump and his conservative allies who accuse it and other elite universities of ideological bias. The administration believes that the school has failed to police antisemitism, encouraged the use of racial preferences on campus, abandoned academic rigor, and become “monolithically leftist,” the administration official said.
The move is the latest tit-for-tat in a clash between the administration and university that has opened up a public debate over academic freedom and campus oversight.
Harvard moved to sue the administration after the government in April sent the university a series of policy changes it wanted implemented to “maintain Harvard’s financial relationship with the federal government.” That included eliminating diversity and inclusion programs and reforming the admissions processes.
Last week, Trump said in a social media post that Harvard University would lose its tax-exempt status — though officials from the Internal Revenue Service, White House, and Treasury Department declined to confirm that change actually had taken place. A presidential revocation of Harvard’s tax-exempt status would subvert the lengthy legal process in place to revoke an organization’s status.
The administration has already frozen billions of dollars in funding that supported projects including ALS and tuberculosis research, and Harvard sued several US agencies and top officials in response.
Harvard has recently taken steps to shore up more cash through a $750 million taxable bond sale. Officials from the endowment have previously discussed selling about $1 billion of private equity fund stakes.
With assistance from Amanda Albright, Elizabeth Rembert and Brooke Sutherland.
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