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.”
Harvard university has rejected President Trump’s list of demands to make changes to its hiring, admissions and teaching practices, saying that the demands were an effort to regulate the university’s “intellectual conditions”.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump accused Harvard of hiring “Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’. The Trump administration says that the changes are designed to fight antisemitism on campus.
Harvard insists that it has taken many steps to fight antisemitism, and that the demands were an effort to regulate the university’s “intellectual conditions”.
The ‘legally binding’ demands included, the end of diversity-based hiring and admissions policies, a ban on international students “hostile to American values”, as well as a government-approved audit of all staff and students to ensure “viewpoint diversity” delivered by the end of the year.
Harvard has rejected the demands, posting a link to its reply by Alan Garber, the University’s President, on social media with the words: “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.”
In its letter, Harvard says that it received a letter from the administration that it must comply with its demands ‘if we intend to “maintain [our] financial relationship with the federal government’.
The letter by Garber adds: “Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the “intellectual conditions” at Harvard.”
The university says that ‘over the past fifteen months, we have taken many steps to address antisemitism on our campus’, before adding: “These ends will not be achieved by assertions of power, unmoored from the law, to control teaching and learning at Harvard and to dictate how we operate.”
Reacting to the letter online, President Obama posted on X: “Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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