New York: U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to deprive Harvard of tax-exempt status after he rejects what he calls the risk of an illegal administration asking for changes to his academic program or potentially losing federal funds.
Starting with Columbia University, the Trump administration has rebuked universities across the country in handling the Pro-Palestinian student protest movement that swept the campus last year.
Trump said the protests were anti-American and anti-Semitism, accusing universities of touting Marxism and the “radical left” ideology and pledging to end federal grants and contracts for universities that disagree with their administration’s request.
Some professors, students and university presidents say the protests are unfairly confused with anti-Semitism, an excuse for an unconstitutional attack on academic freedom.
Columbia, a private school in New York City, agreed to negotiate after the Trump administration said last month that Columbia terminated a $400 million grant and contract, mainly for medical and other scientific research.
Harvard President Alan Garber said in a letter Monday that the Trump administration demanded that the University of Massachusetts formulate an audit of the Trump administration, including ensuring “diversity of perspectives” for students and faculty, and ending all diversity, equity and inclusion programs, an unprecedented “proposition of power” that “violates the law and violates the right to human rights to speech.”
He said, like Columbia, Harvard University has struggled to fight anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination on campus, while retaining academic freedom and right to protest.
Hours after Garber released the letter, the Trump administration jointly combated anti-Semitism, saying it had frozen more than $2 billion in contracts and allocated funds to Harvard, the oldest and richest university in the country. The government did not answer questions about the reduction of grants and contracts, and Harvard did not respond to a request for comment.
Republican was Trump in a social media post on Tuesday that if he continues to push what he calls “politics, ideology and terrorists inspired/supported “disease”?
He didn’t say how he would do this. Under the U.S. Tax Act, most universities are exempt from federal income tax because they are considered “operated specifically for educational purposes.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Trump would like to see Harvard apologize for what she calls “anti-Semitism that takes place on their university campuses”.
She accused Harvard and other schools of violating Chapter 6 of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits the acceptance of federal funding discrimination based on race or nationality.
According to Chapter 6, federal funding can only be terminated after a prolonged investigation and hearing process and 30 days of congressional notice, which has not yet occurred in Columbia or Harvard University.
