Day: April 21, 2025
The Trump administration plans to pull another $1 billion in federal grants and contracts for health research from Harvard University amid an escalating, high-stakes battle between the government and the university over institutional oversight and independence, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Last Monday, the Trump administration announced it would freeze $2.2 billion in multiyear grants and $60 million in multiyear contract value after Harvard said it would not follow policy demands from the administration.
People familiar with the matter said officials were surprised when the university made public a letter from the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, the Journal reported Sunday.
“Before Monday, the administration was planning to treat Harvard more leniently than Columbia University, but now officials want to apply even more pressure to the nation’s most prominent university, according to the people,” the Journal reports. “People familiar with Harvard’s response say there was no agreement to keep the letter private, and that its contents – including requirements that Harvard allow federal-government oversight of admissions, hiring and the ideology of students and staff – were a nonstarter.”