Harvard sued on April 21 after getting letters from the Trump administration calling for broad changes to government and leadership and to the university’s admissions policies.
The administration also demanded the university audit views of diversity on campus and stop recognising some student clubs. It has argued universities allowed antisemitism to go unchecked at campus protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Harvard President Alan Garber said the university would not bend to the demands.
Harvard presents the Trump administration’s first major hurdle in its attempt to force change at universities that Republicans say have become hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism. A part of that is targeting research funding which has fuelled scientific breakthroughs but has become an easy source of leverage for the Trump administration.
Harvard’s suit called the funding freeze “arbitrary and capricious”, saying it violated its First Amendment rights and the statutory provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. (AP) SZM