Inside the president’s battle with the university.
The Trump administration urged federal agencies this week to find other universities to fill government contracts now held by Harvard. Every week seems to bring another escalation in the conflict between the school and the government, which says Harvard’s professors are biased, its Jewish students are unsafe and its officials use “diversity” to admit “woke” applicants.
Americans have fought for centuries over what students are taught. But the Trump administration has a new approach: It is using the government’s power to compel compliance with its views. Can a president determine what universities teach, whom they employ, how they admit people and what government largess they deserve as a result?
More than 2,600 four-year colleges are watching closely to find out. For them, the implications are clear. Harvard has sued the administration, but if the government wins in court, the commander in chief can impose a political agenda on colleges and universities. He or she could use roughly $60 billion in research money to ensure that administrators do what they’re told.
The White House says it wants to send a message. It cites concerns from Jews on campus who said they were harassed during protests over the Gaza war. It says Harvard’s hiring and admissions discriminate against conservatives, especially white men with traditional views about gender. It says it wants to protect civil rights and free speech.
But university officials say the administration’s approach is a threat to academic freedom — and an attack on some of the longest-held tenets of American culture. College campuses incubate new ideas because they welcome experimentation and novelty. Attracting high-caliber students from all over the world has been one of the greatest sources of the nation’s academic, economic and scientific strength for more than a century.
What levers has the Trump administration pulled to bring Harvard into line? I’ve been tracking them. In April, the administration sent a demand letter telling the school to meet 10 requirements that went far beyond concerns about antisemitism or diversity policies. The government wanted curriculum changes; a ban on admitting students “hostile to the American values”; and an audit to verify the school had “viewpoint diversity.” Harvard said it wouldn’t comply.
