The Trump administration’s joint task force to combat anti-Semitism has announced a freeze of more than $2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts with Harvard University in Massachusetts after the school president issued a statement that schools would not comply with the administration’s demands on anti-Semitism.
“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the mindset of endemic and troublesome rights at the most prestigious universities and universities in our country. Federal investment does not have a responsibility to support civil rights law,” the task force said. “The learning confusion that has plagued campus in recent years is unacceptable, and the harassment of Jewish students is unbearable.
“It’s time for elite universities to take matters seriously and continue to receive taxpayer support, and commit to meaningful change,” the statement continued. “The Joint Task Force to Fight Anti-Semitism is announcing a $2.2 billion multi-year grant and a $60 million freeze on multi-year contract value to Harvard University.”
The decision comes after Harvard President Alan M. Gerber said the school would not comply with the Trump administration’s demands despite the possibility that the Ivy League may be losing federal funds.
Harvard will not comply with Trump administrators’ requests amid the threat of cutting federal funds
Trump’s administrators have frozen over $2.2 billion in Harvard grants. (AP)
In his letter, Gerber said the federal government threatened partnerships with several universities, including Harvard, over the accusations of anti-Semitism on campus.
He also said the Trump administration issued the latest expanded list of requests and said that if schools plan to maintain financial ties with the federal government, it must follow.
“The intent makes it clear that it is not to work with us to address anti-Semitism in a collaborative and constructive way,” Gerber writes. “We have notified the administration through our legal advisor that we will not accept the proposed agreement.”
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Harvard said he would not follow the Trump administration’s demands. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Rep. Elise Stefanik, Rn.Y., who graduated from Harvard in 2006, toressed the response of Ivy League schools, saying, “… Harvard has acquired its position as a microcosm of moral and academic corruption in higher education.”
“The radical group is believed to be due to faculty on the far left, incompetent university leadership, donations from foreign enemies, and Pro Hamas terrorists, and Harvard fully embraced and tolerated the fierce anti-Semitism that threatened the lives and physical safety of Jewish students on campus,” Stefanik said. “Now is the time to completely cut off US taxpayer funds for this institution.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy praised Harvard’s decision not to fold into the Trump administration.
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Governor Maura Healy, D-Mass. praised Harvard. (Adam Grantzman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Specifically, she thanked Harvard University and Gerber for their leadership for standing up for education and freedom by what she called, what she called, “a brave attempt to bully schools.”
“We all agree that anti-Semitism has no place in America and that we should fight in our workplaces, in our classrooms, in our own way,” Healy said. “Complying with the dangerous demands of the Trump administration will reduce safety for all of us.”
President Donald Trump has suspended federal funding for all Ivy League, besides Penn and Dartmouth, over an investigation into anti-Israel protests on campus since October 2023.
Earlier this month, the Federal Anti-Semitism Task Force published a review of Harvard University’s federal grants and contracts worth nearly $9 billion as the university faces anti-Semitism investigations on campus.
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The Trump administration has promised to be more aggressive in ending campus anti-Semitism after President Joe Biden said he didn’t hold the university responsible for their violent protests.
The administration also moved to detain and deport foreign students who participated or organized anti-Israel protests at American universities.
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Pritchett and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Greg Wehner is a news reporter for Fox News Digital.
Story tips and ideas can be sent to greg.wehner @fox.com and Twitter @gregwehner.
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