Harvard sues Trump administration over funding freeze

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On Monday, Harvard University filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to prevent its “illegal” efforts to freeze more than $ 3 billion in federal funding and increase government control over the esteemed institution.

In a statement, Harvard University President Alan Garper warned of “the demands of the government and intervention … that would impose unprecedented and inappropriate control over the university” with “stark realistic consequences for patients, students, employees, researchers and American higher education in the world.”

He added: “We are defending the fact that colleges and universities throughout the country can embrace and honor their legal obligations and the best basic role in society without inappropriate government storming.”

The government accused Harvard of failing to combat anti -Semitism on the campus. After freezing $ 2.2 billion of federal financing earlier this month, he is also looking to prevent future grants of hundreds of millions of dollars from Harvard University and four other universities of the American elite.

In an e -mail leaked to the Nature magazine and published in X on Monday, a senior official of the National Health Institutes teaching colleagues “adhering to the University of Harvard University” Harvard, Brown, Colombia, Cornell and North West – and to provide any reason for the discounts. The total grant of these institutions last year was $ 1.7 billion.

The Trump administration also threatened to cancel the Harvard tax exemption situation after the university leadership rejected the demands of narrow governmental controls for its academic freedom.

Separately, the messages that were leaked to the Fix College publication last week showed that the Civil Rights Office of the US Department of Health and Humanitarian Services requested copies of all its results or a draft reports on combating anti -Semitism and anti -Israeli bias, as well as others in the anti -Muslims, anti -Arab and opposing.

Seven universities have been distinguished by the targeted government cuts since March. Michael Kotklikov, President of Cornell, said in an email to his university on Monday that he had not received any official government contact confirming the freezing of $ 1 billion in the early April.

But he added that Cornell researchers had received a series of “stopping work” orders from government financiers, and said that the university “responds strongly.” “This includes legal and strategic participation and at the level of politics to reflect these procedures and prevent further disturbance.”

Separately, the government has risen in recent weeks from the arrests of the demonstrators who support students throughout the country, nullifying hundreds of visas of international students. Last week, she asked Harvard to provide detailed records of “illegal foreign students visa and violence” or inspected her eligibility to receive foreign students.

Harvard replied that she “will not give up her independence or abandon her constitutional rights.” “We will continue to comply with the law and expect the administration to do the same,” Garper said in a statement.

The university established committees to investigate the anti -Semitism and issued its initial recommendations last summer. Garbar said on Monday that this and a separate report on the Muslim and opposing bias of the Palestinian administration and control will be published “soon.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that the anti -Samia business squad has been angered by Harvard’s decision to issue its message and plan more freezing at a value of one billion dollars.

Harvard’s decision to challenge the government’s demands – contrary to the concessions of the University of Colombia regarding the administration’s order to reform governance and student discipline – raised an increase in donations by the graduates, with several thousand of the contributions reported by Qarmazi newspaper last week.

The faculty, students and graduates at other universities also intensified their demands for further coordination in resisting the Trump administration attacks on higher education institutions.

“Although we are seeking to continue the constructive dialogue with the government, we reject any agreement that requires us to abandon our independence and independence as an educational institution,” Claire Chipman, the Acting President of Colombia, said in a statement.

Harvard is in a better position than most universities to bear the cuts in government financing; Its gifts of $ 53 billion are the largest in any higher education institution in the United States.

Many universities, including Harvard University, have turned into bond markets to generate short -term funds, providing them with liquidity to help bridge the short term in financing and potential legal battles. Many have also implemented job freezing and cost reduction measures.