On April 14, 2025, the US administration announced that it would freeze $2 billion in federal grants and contracts for Harvard University in retaliation for the university’s failure to accede to unsubstantiated allegations regarding its efforts to combat antisemitism and to a range of demands for government control over teaching, hiring, admissions, campus policies, and operations.

On March 31, 2025, the US Departments of Education (ED), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) stated that it would undertake a review of $9 billion in federal government funding to Harvard.

On April 3, the GSA, HHSS, and DOE wrote to Harvard outlining steps that the university must take in order to retain US government funding. The demands included changes to curriculum, disciplinary policies, hiring and admissions, and expanded cooperation with law enforcement. While the university was considering its response, on April 11, 2025, the GSA, HHSS, and DOE followed up with a second and significantly more detailed letter with an extraordinary range of demands. These included government dictated changes to the university’s hiring and admissions practices to transform the faculty, student body, and curriculum so that it conforms with the administration’s views. The letter also exerted government authority over the university’s disciplinary processes, including by demanding that the university impose specific disciplinary processes on several student groups (mentioned by name) and the leadership and members of those groups. The letter noted that all reforms must be made by August 2025.

The letter stated that it constituted “an agreement in principle” and a transitional instrument leading to a “more thorough, binding settlement agreement.” This suggests that the administration anticipates seeking a judicially enforceable legal consent decree which would bind the university to outside monitoring and oversight at least through 2028, substantially reducing or eliminating institutional autonomy and academic freedom.

On April 14, Harvard President Alan M. Garber announced that the university’s legal council had informed the US administration that it would not agree to the demands laid out in the letter, stating that doing so would require the university to “surrender its independence [and] relinquish its constitutional rights.” The US administration responded later that day by announcing that it would freeze $2 billion in government funding to the university.

UPDATE 5/14/25: On May 13, the US government froze an additional $450 million in federal grants to Harvard University.

Scholars at Risk is concerned about formal state pressure on institutional autonomy and academic freedom, including threatened investigations, withholding or cancellation of research grants and contracts, and unilateral demands for external control over hiring, admissions, research and teaching content, and administration. While legislative and executive officials have a right to express their views about higher education communities and policies, they have a responsibility to refrain from using their offices to threaten, impose extra-legal sanctions, or otherwise dictate academic or operational decision-making. Formal state threats and pressures undermine university autonomy, academic freedom, and the university’s ability to contribute to democratic society generally.

Sources:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/trump-administration-to-review-9-billion-in-federal-funding-to-harvard
https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/ed-hhs-and-gsa-initiate-federal-contract-and-grant-review-of-harvard-university
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/us/politics/trump-harvard-funding-demands.html
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/4/4/harvard-federal-funding-demands/
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25879226/april-3-harvard-preconditions-letter.pdf
https://www.chronicle.com/article/trump-demands-harvard-eradicate-dei-to-preserve-its-federal-funding
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/us/harvard-trump-reject-demands.html
https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Letter-Sent-to-Harvard-2025-04-11.pdf
https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2025/the-promise-of-american-higher-education/
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/05/14/harvard-hit-450-million-freeze-grants
https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/joint-task-force-combat-anti-semitism-statement-additional-harvard-actions