Harvard’s president rejected Trump’s demands. Here’s how other university leaders have responded to the White House

04/17/2025

Tensions are rising across American academia after the Trump administration froze over $2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts at Harvard University after its leaders refused to make key policy changes the White House also is demanding of other elite US colleges.

Harvard refused to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, ban masks at campus protests, enact merit-based hiring and admissions reforms, and reduce the power of faculty and administrators the Republican administration has called “more committed to activism than scholarship.”

“The University will not surrender its independence or its constitutional rights,” Harvard President Alan M. Garber wrote Monday of the Ivy League school near Boston.

Taylor Romine and Lauren Mascarenhas April 16, 2025

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