Trump administration sets forth demands for Harvard to avert loss of billions in federal funding

The Trump Administration on Thursday sent Harvard University a list of broad demands required to avoid the risk of losing billions of dollars in federal funding. The conditions include slashing all diversity, equity and inclusion programming and cooperating with law enforcement officials.

The move follows the announcement Monday by three federal agencies that nearly $9 billion in federal funding to Harvard and its affiliates is under review due to the university’s alleged failure to protect students from antisemitism on campus.

Addressed to Harvard University President Alan Garber and Harvard Corporation Member Penny Pritzker, the letter was first reported by Fox News and posted in full by the Harvard Crimson. A spokesperson for the university confirmed receipt of the letter to WBUR, but declined to comment further.

Among the list of demands is a requirement that Harvard modify any programming and departments that "fuel antisemitic harassment.” No specific programs or departments were identified.

Federal officials also ordered Harvard to cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that oversees immigration enforcement. Several non-U.S. citizen students and faculty members here in the country legally have been arrested and detained in recent weeks, including Tufts doctoral candidate Rumeysa Ozturk.

The list added that Harvard must review and reform its disciplinary measures, including instituting a "comprehensive” mask ban. Pro-Palestinian protesters have used masks during campus rallies to avoid identification and doxxing.

The letter also stipulated that the university must use merit-based admissions and hiring policies and end “all preferences based on race, color, or national origin.” Since the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action in higher education, colleges and universities can no longer consider race as a factor in admissions.

Signed by members of the departments of education, health and human services and General Services Administration, the letter said the listed demands were "non-exhaustive,” and gave no clear timeline for implementation.

“We expect your immediate cooperation,” it read.

Federal officials sent a letter outlining similar demands to Columbia University last month, after canceling $400 million in federal research grants and contracts to that school. The New York-based university agreed to change its disciplinary procedures, including banning student protesters from wearing masks and installing new oversight over the school’s Middle Eastern studies department.

Harvard and Columbia were among the 60 schools nationwide who received notice from the Trump administration last month they are being investigated for antisemitism concerns. Also on the list are five other Massachusetts schools: Boston University, Emerson College, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Tufts University and Wellesley College.

In a message to the Harvard community earlier this week, Harvard’s president said the school has expended “considerable effort” to combat discrimination towards its Jewish students, including strengthening rules and disciplinary policies and bolstering training and education around antisemitism.

Garber added that a loss of federal funding of this magnitude would cause an enormous setback to the university’s — and neighboring hospitals’ — ability to advance science.

“If this funding is stopped, it will halt life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation,” he wrote.

Harvard's administration has remained largely quiet in the face of the Trump administration’s threats against universities across the country. But faculty and students on campuses have grown increasingly vocal.

Last week, faculty members across Harvard sent a letter to the university's administration urging them to stand up to attacks on higher education. The list has now garnered over 800 signatures.

On Tuesday, hundreds of Harvard students rallied outside University Hall to call on the school to adopt a stronger stance against threats of deportation and funding cuts.

In response to the latest demand letter from federal officials, Harvard history professor Kirsten Weld — and president of the Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors — is urging the school to take direct action.

“The Trump Administration's demands are patently illegal authoritarian extortion,” she said. “Harvard should contest them aggressively in court. If the wealthiest and best-known university on the planet won't stand up to fight this bullying and overreach, then who will?”

"If the wealthiest and best-known university on the planet won't stand up to fight this bullying and overreach, then who will?”

Kirsten Weld, president of the Harvard chapter of AAUP

Harvard biology and physics professor Michael Desai said while some of the demands outlined in the letter, at least on the surface, seem reasonable, such as those for merit-based hiring, he added that the demands are rather vague and he's not quite sure exactly what they mean.

“I hope we can find a way to maintain the core principles of academic freedom that the university is based on, without simultaneously having to destroy scientific research,” Desai said. “I don't know how [the administration's] going to try to thread that needle.”

Desai receives federal funding for his research. The money supports his lab which employs about a dozen graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

He worries about their future — and the broader impact of the attack on higher education across the country.

“It's disturbing,” he said.