Harvard says no to Trump demands: What to know about $2B funding freeze

WASHINGTON - After Harvard University refused the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus, the federal government said it would freeze more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to the Ivy League school.

President Donald Trump’s administration has put funding on hold for a number of elite U.S. colleges. Most of the schools are in the Ivy League.

Here’s what to know:

Harvard says no to Trump 

Big picture view:

Trump's administration has normalized the withholding of federal money to pressure major academic institutions to comply with the president's political agenda and to influence campus policy. The administration has argued universities allowed antisemitism to go unchecked at campus protests last year against Israel's war in Gaza.

What we know:

Trump's administration, in a letter to Harvard on Friday, called for broad government and leadership reforms at the university, as well as changes to its admissions policies. It also demanded the university audit views of diversity on campus, and stop recognizing some student clubs.

The U.S. government said almost $9 billion in grants and contracts in total were at risk if Harvard did not comply.

On Monday, Harvard President Alan Garber said the university would not bend to the government's demands. Within hours, the federal government froze billions in Harvard's federal funding.

Trump administration’s Harvard demands

Dig deeper:

Trump has promised a more aggressive approach against antisemitism on campus, accusing former President Joe Biden of letting schools off the hook. Trump's administration has opened new investigations into colleges and detained and deported several foreign students with ties to pro-Palestinian protests.

The government's demands included:

• A Harvard ban on face masks — an apparent target of pro-Palestinian campus protesters — and that the university stop recognizing or funding "any student group or club that endorses or promotes criminal activity, illegal violence, or illegal harassment." 
• It also demanded that the school institute what it called "merit-based" admissions and hiring policies and conduct an audit of the study body, faculty and leadership on their views about diversity. 

The backstory:

The first university targeted by the Trump administration was Columbia, which ultimately accepted the government’s demands under the threat of billions of dollars in cuts. The administration has also paused federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Princeton, Cornell and Northwestern.

Harvard's response to Trump

The other side:

For his part, Garber said that Harvard has already made extensive reforms to address antisemitism. He said many of the government's demands don't relate to antisemitism, but instead are an attempt to regulate the "intellectual conditions" at Harvard.

What they're saying:

"The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights," Garber said in a letter to the Harvard community. "No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue."

Withholding federal funding from Harvard, one of the nation's top research universities in science and medicine, "risks not only the health and well-being of millions of individuals but also the economic security and vitality of our nation," Garber said. It also violates the university's First Amendment rights and exceeds the government's authority under Title VI, which prohibits discrimination against students based on their race, color or national origin, he added. 

Harvard's annual budget

By the numbers:

The federal funding freeze of more than $2.2 billion represents roughly 34% of Harvard University's annual operating budget, which was $6.4 billion in Fiscal Year 2024, according to its website. 

Its 2024 operating budget was a 9% increase from the year prior, driven primarily by higher compensation costs, increased spending on information technology, and campus maintenance.