Harvard Acknowledges ‘Common Ground’ With Trump Admin But Won’t ‘Surrender’
May 12, 2025
4,356
Harvard University responded Monday to the Trump administration’s latest legal threats to the school, acknowledging it has “common ground” with the administration but reiterating that Harvard will not “surrender its core, legally-protected principles” out of fear of retaliation.
Why It Matters
The Trump administration has targeted multiple Ivy League institutions over what President Donald Trump characterizes as a failure by the schools to take steps to combat antisemitism on campus.
Trump has repeatedly lambasted Harvard in the weeks since the school first came into his crosshairs, including by freezing more than $2 billion in federal funding for the university and threatening to revoke its tax-exempt status.
Harvard responded by suing the government, alleging that the administration’s actions were unconstitutional and a threat to academic freedom.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House on May 12, 2025. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House on May 12, 2025. Mark Schiefelbein/AP
What To Know
Harvard’s latest volley against the Trump administration came after Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent a letter to the school last week saying the government would not issue any new federal grants to Harvard because it “failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor.”
Harvard President Alan Garber hit back at McMahon in a letter Monday, though he acknowledged: “As your letter suggests, we share common ground on a number of critical issues, including the importance of ending antisemitism and other bigotry on campus.”
“Like you, I believe that Harvard must foster an academic environment that encourages freedom of thought and expression, and that we should embrace a multiplicity of viewpoints rather than focusing our attention on narrow orthodoxies,” he added.
Garber went on to write: “Consistent with the law and with our own values, we continue to pursue needed reforms, doing so in consultation with our stakeholders and always in compliance with the law. But Harvard will not surrender its core, legally-protected principles out of fear of unfounded retaliation by the federal government.”
This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Um die besten Erfahrungen zu bieten, verwenden wir Technologien wie Cookies, um Geräteinformationen zu speichern und/oder darauf zuzugreifen. Wenn Sie diesen Technologien zustimmen, können wir Daten wie das Surfverhalten oder eindeutige IDs auf dieser Website verarbeiten. Die Nichteinwilligung oder der Widerruf der Einwilligung kann bestimmte Merkmale und Funktionen beeinträchtigen.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
