"Encouraging & Important": Harvard Rejected Trump Takeover. Will Other Institutions Join the Fight?

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Harvard University has pushed back as President Trump ramps up his attacks on higher education. After Harvard rejected demands by the Trump administration to eliminate all DEI initiatives and further crack down on Palestinian rights protests, including reporting international students to federal authorities, the Trump administration said it's freezing $2.2 billion in federal grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard. University President Alan Garber wrote in a letter to the school community on Monday, "The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights."

"This is an effort to try to take over the ideological agenda of the country by taking over universities," says Andrew Manuel Crespo, professor at Harvard Law School and general counsel of the Harvard faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

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