The Ivy Leave institute’s lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration has gotten worse with the announcement that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will terminate $ 60 million in federal grants to Harvard University. This is in addition to the administration’s ongoing conflict over alleged anti-Semitism, presidential control, and the limitations of academic freedom.
HHS is terminating several multi-year grant awards, totaling approximately $60 million over their full duration, as a result of Harvard University’s ongoing failure to address anti-Semitic harassment and race discrimination, according to the department’s statement on X on Monday.
It stated that “federal funds must support institutions that protect all students” and that discrimination “will not be tolerated” on campus.
HHS is firmly pursuing civil rights in higher education. HHS is terminating several multi-year grant awards worth about $60 million over their… picture as a result of Harvard University’s ongoing failure to address anti-Semitic harassment and race discrimination. twitter.com/99aUd4ZVYF
More than $2.2 billion in federal grants have already been frozen by the Trump administration.
In a letter to Harvard, education department secretary Linda McMahon also announced earlier this month that the university would no longer be receiving government funding for research because it had “made a mockery” of higher education.
According to McMahon, “Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution and can operate as a privately funded institution, drawing on its enormous endowment, and raising money from its large base of wealthy alumni.”
The administration has filed a lawsuit against Harvard, alleging that the funding freeze is in violation of federal law, which forbids the president from ordering the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to conduct or terminate an audit or investigation.
Alan Garber, president of Harvard, announced last week that the university would use $ 250 million in its own funds to fund research.
The conflict between the president and Harvard, a prestigious Ivy League campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, started in March when Trump attempted to impose new laws and regulations on top universities that had hosted pro-Palestinian protests for the past year.
Trump has accused those organizing these protests of anti-Semitism and called them “illegal.” However, student protest leaders have defended their actions as peaceful responses to Israel’s ongoing conflict in Gaza, which raised questions about genocide-related human rights violations.
The first funding freeze was announced by the Trump administration in April. The administration’s numerous demands to address alleged anti-Semitism had been rejected by Harvard, saying they would impose excessive government control on it. The administration had requested that the organization change its disciplinary system, eliminate its diversity initiatives, and approve an external audit of programs that the organization deemed anti-Semitic.
Source: Aljazeera
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