Harvard President Alan Garber warned other universities to stand “firm” in “what we stand for” on Tuesday as President Donald Trump has mobilized against the university.
Garber, in an interview with NPR’s “Morning Edition,” emphasized the need for colleges to uphold their “commitment to the good of the nation,” and said that he finds Trump’s pressure against Harvard as “perplexing.”
The Trump administration has rallied against Harvard, citing that the Ivy League school is filled with antisemitism and liberalism, as the Ivy League school defied its calls of making leadership changes, revising its admissions policy, and auditing students and faculty to ensure the university has a wide array of viewpoints.
During the interview, Garber said that while the government has urged the school to specifically address antisemitism, as well as increase viewpoint diversity, he acknowledged that the school does have issues, particularly with speech, and will continue to “work at it.”
“We think it’s a real problem, if — particularly a research university’s students don’t feel free to speak their minds, when faculty feel that they have to think twice before they talk about the subjects that they’re teaching,” Garber said. “That’s a real problem that we need to address.”
“And it’s particularly concerning when people have views that they think are unpopular,” he continued. “And the administration and others have said conservatives are too few on campus and their views are not welcome. In so far as that’s true, that’s a problem we really need to address.”
The Trump administration has already canceled over $2.6 billion in federal research grants for Harvard, and on Tuesday, The New York Times first reported that it is planning on asking federal agencies to cancel their contracts with the school, which totals to around $100 million. On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote on Monday that he is considering moving $3 billion in federal grants to trade schools across the country.
The government has also threatened the school’s tax-exempt status, and blocked Harvard from enrolling international students, which a federal judge has blocked. The Department of Homeland Security has also asked the university to turn over files including disciplinary records tied to its international student body.
“The best thing Harvard has going for it is that they have shopped around and found the absolute best Judge (for them!) - But have no fear, the Government will, in the end, WIN!” Trump wrote in another Truth Social post on Monday.
Harvard filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the government’s demands in April, in addition to a separate lawsuit against the push to cut current and prevent future foreign students from attending the university. Harvard argued that the action violates the First Amendment and will have an “immediate and devastating effect” for 7,000 visa holders.
The first university targeted by the Trump administration was Columbia, which acquiesced to the government’s demands under the threat of billions of dollars in cuts. The administration also has paused federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Princeton, Cornell and Northwestern.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stories by Rachel Cohen
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