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Donald Trump’s administration has launched a review into measures to tackle alleged antisemitism at Harvard University, which could freeze up to $9bn in federal funding to the institution.
The departments of education, health and human services and the General Services Administration on Monday said they had begun “a comprehensive review of federal contracts and grants at Harvard University and its affiliates” as part of their joint task force to combat antisemitism.
Linda McMahon, education secretary, said in a statement: “Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from antisemitic discrimination — all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry — has put its reputation in serious jeopardy.”
She added the government would “collaborate with relevant contracting agencies to assess whether stop work orders should be issued”. The statement said the review would cover $256mn in contracts and $8.7bn in multiyear grant commitments “to ensure the university is in compliance with federal regulations, including its civil rights responsibilities”.
Trump and the Republican party have launched a series of attacks on higher education, with accusations of “woke” ideology and threats of broader measures including investigations into antisemitism and potential taxes on university endowments.
The move on Monday comes despite recent pre-emptive moves by Harvard to avoid the measures. The university has established an antisemitism task force, recently settled a lawsuit by students alleging antisemitism on campus, dismissed the faculty leaders of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies and cancelled a partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank.
It has also pledged to release an annual report on its progress in response to discrimination or harassment. But it still faces legal action and a separate probe by the federal government.
Kirsten Weld, head of the recently established university chapter of the American Association of University Professors, called the latest move by the government “callously destructive” and said: “This is an attack on the whole sector, on civil society and democratic culture in the US.”
“We’ve now seen the Trump administration’s strategy is to pick off individual institutions one by one,” she said. “They are not going to stop. The only way forward is for institutions to co-ordinate and work together across the sector to develop a united front and a joint strategy to push back against these attacks.”
The latest escalation against elite higher education institutions follows the withdrawal earlier in March of $400mn in federal grants to Columbia University, which made a series of concessions following demands for changes to governance and discipline against student protesters.
Columbia’s actions, which led to the resignation last week of its second president since 2023, have not yet resulted in any of the grant money being returned.
The government has also frozen $175mn in funding to the University of Pennsylvania, allegedly linked to it permitting transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports in line with guidelines in place at the time.
Sean Keveney, health and human services department acting general counsel, said on Monday: “The task force will continue its efforts to root out antisemitism and to refocus our institutions of higher learning on the core values that undergird a liberal education.”
Harvard has an endowment valued at over $50bn, which officials stress is earmarked for specific expenditures, including financial aid. Earlier this month it announced an expansion in support that would allow undergraduate education to be free for students from families with annual incomes of $100,000 or less.
Several dozen Harvard law professors spoke out in a letter to students last week against “severe challenges to the rule of law” posed by the Trump administration’s actions against law firms and in punishing people “for lawfully speaking out on matters of public concern”.
Harvard has been approached for comment.
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