Harvard sues Trump Administration over threats to cut funding

Harvard, the world’s wealthiest university, sued the US President Donald Trump administration on Monday, fighting back against its threats to cut billions of dollars from the school’s research funding, The New York Times reported.

Earlier this month, the Trump Administration sent Harvard a list of demands that included auditing professors for plagiarism, reporting to the federal government any international students accused of misconduct, and appointing an outside overseer to make sure that academic departments were “viewpoint diverse.”

Alan M. Garber, Harvard’s president, accused the government in a statement on Monday of trying to wield “unprecedented and improper control.” Dr. Garber said the consequences of the government’s actions would be “severe and long lasting.”

The Trump administration has claimed that Harvard and other schools have allowed antisemitic language and harassment to remain unchecked on their campuses. Monday’s lawsuit noted that the government had cited the university’s response to antisemitism as justification for its “unlawful action.”

Dr. Garber, in his statement, said that “as a Jew and as an American, I know very well that there are valid concerns about rising antisemitism.” But he said that the government was legally required to engage with the university about the ways it was fighting antisemitism. Instead, he said, the government has sought to control “whom we hire and what we teach,” according to The New York Times.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, accuses the government of unleashing a broad attack as “leverage to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard.” It also references other major universities that have faced abrupt funding cuts.