Trump's week in review: From funding freezes to Holy Week celebrations
1. Trump administration freezes billions of dollars in grants to Harvard University
In a statement published Monday, the U.S. Department of Education’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced that it was freezing $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contracts to Harvard University after the Ivy League institution announced that it was refusing to comply with the Trump administration’s demands as laid out in an April 11 letter.
The letter called on Harvard to adopt and implement merit-based hiring and admissions policies and “cease all preferences based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” by August. Another demand placed on the college included the reform of its “recruitment, screening, and admissions of international students to prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including students supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism.”
The Trump administration also demanded that Harvard prioritize “viewpoint diversity” in admissions and hiring in addition to taking steps to reform “programs with egregious records of antisemitism or other bias” by conducting an audit of such programs.
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The letter also calls for abolishing diversity, equity and inclusion programs and initiatives on campus and the reforming of student discipline procedures to ensure that “disruptions or deplatforming” do not happen in the future.
The Trump administration’s demands occur in the context of antisemitic protests that broke out on campus following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel perpetrated by Hamas in which nearly 1,200 people were tortured and killed, including some 40 Americans, and over 254 others were taken hostage, many also raped or tortured.
The letter seeks disciplinary action for those who participated in student protests, including expulsion of students responsible for the Oct. 18, 2023, assault of an Israeli business student.
“Harvard must adopt a new policy on student groups or clubs that forbids the recognition and funding of, or provision of accommodations to, any student group or club that endorses or promotes criminal activity, illegal violence, or illegal harassment; invites non-students onto campus who regularly violate campus rules; or acts as a front for a student club that has been banned from campus,” the letter stated.
In a message to the campus community addressing the Trump administration’s demands, Harvard President Alan Garber wrote, “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”
Garber added, “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.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
