The Magic Word: “No”
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/us/harvard-trump-reject-demands.html
Throughout the country, universities and law firms are struggling to determine what to do about the Trump Administration’s attack on them. The universities are being targeted putatively for an inadequate response to what the Trump team believes to be antisemitism on campus. For the most part this “antisemitic” behavior manifested itself as protests in favor of Palestinians, but in some cases Jewish students feared for their safety while going to class. Peaceful protest is one thing. Threatening people because of their religion is quite another.
I don’t like the pro-Palestinian position, but I respect the students’ right to express it as long as it is peaceful and non-disruptive or threatening to other students.
The major weapon the Trump Administration is using against the universities is the threat to withhold huge dollar amounts of grant and contract funds. In fact, on April 15, the Trump Administration held back $2.2 billion from Harvard (see below). These funds are the life blood of research at these places. Without the money, scientific progress will stop.
In addition to withholding the money, the Trump Administration wants inordinate control of the curricula at these campuses and information about foreign students and any DEI activities that might be affecting hiring or admission policies. This broke the camel’s back at Harvard and started the current conflict.
In other words, the Trump Administration is once again using extortion to cleanse what it believes is an inappropriate and insufficiently eclectic political viewpoint from the ivory tower. Trump thinks these places are intolerant of conservative thought and demands they change that if they want federal money.
For the most part, when confronted with the power of the federal government, universities and law firms who have represented clients who opposed Mr. Trump in court, alike have cowed to the pressure and did what was asked of them. Today, April 14 as I write this, Harvard has finally said “No.”
Admittedly, Harvard has the largest endowment of any university (in excess of $50B) and might be able to fall back on it transiently to continue its academic activities, but I don’t think that is what is going on here. The faculty and leadership of the most influential university in the United States have said that they will not allow anyone from outside the university community to determine what they will teach, what they will allow students to say, or how they will make decisions regarding admissions and hiring. Essentially Harvard has said that it is a private university and the government has no role in any of its internal workings although the Supreme Court did eliminate its DEI admissions policy.
Anyone who has ever had an NIH grant knows that there are certain stipulations that come with the grant money involving things like research integrity, the use of Institutional Review Boards, animal care and use, and financial disclosure. The Trump Administration wants to extend its hold on these universities beyond simple obedience with the Code of Federal Regulations. Trump wants to determine what people can say and do on campus and on line. They have pushed Harvard over the edge. Undoubtedly this will wind up in court.
Federal grant money has been authorized and appropriated by Congress, but is under the control of the executive branch. It will be up to the judiciary to decide what constraints the executive branch can put on institutions receiving federal funds.
All I can say is that it is about time someone stood up to Trump and said enough is enough.
So far, most people and institutions that oppose Trump have fared poorly. But those are government workers. Now the biggest kid on the block has stood up to the biggest bully Washington has ever seen. A lot is riding on this gambit by the Crimson. This may well represent a fight for the soul of American academia.
As all my friends know, I never root for Harvard. This time, Go Crimson!
