Feds threaten billions in funds at Harvard, saying school fails to protect against antisemitism

Accusing Harvard University of allowing antisemitism to fester on its campus, the Trump administration announced Monday it is reviewing nearly $9 billion in federal grants and hundreds of millions in contracts awarded to the elite school.

“Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination - all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry - has put its reputation in serious jeopardy,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a statement released by the federal government's task force to combat antisemitism.

In a statement to the school community, Harvard President Alan Garber wrote that the loss of funds "will halt life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation."

Harvard will communicate with the task force, Garber added, about past and future actions to fight antisemitism "while protecting our community and its academic freedom."

The university and its leadership "fully embrace the important goal of combatting antisemitism," Garber said. He called it "one of the most insidious forms of bigotry" before noting that as president he has personally experienced antisemitism and knows "it is present on our campus."

Over the months that heated debates and protests over the war in Gaza placed a national spotlight on it and several universities, Garber said Harvard took steps to try to clamp down on discrimination, from changing protest rules and punishments for violations to offering more education on antisemitism and "civil dialogue."

The threat to Harvard's funding follows the Trump administration's decision in early March to cut roughly $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, saying the school ignored antisemitism on its campus.

The New York City-based school then quickly agreed to comply with a number of “preconditions” set by the task force in hopes of entering a path to restore the funds.

Last week, the university's interim president abruptly left the role, just days after the school accepted some of the government’s terms, according to reporting from the New York Times.

The review of Harvard’s funds for research will be conducted by the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. General Services Administration.

Nearly 800 faculty members signed a letter last week urging the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers to resist the Trump administration's attacks on American universities.

Harvard History Professor Kirsten Weld was one of the signatories.

"We knew this was coming,” Weld said in a phone interview Monday. “It was very clear this was where the situation was headed and many faculty members, not only on our campus but on many others around the country, made the case that our institutions will be picked off one by one unless they stand together.”

In response to the cuts at Columbia University, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker told WBUR it was hard to see how cutting research dollars will help combat discrimination.

"There are problems," he said, adding he's aware of "particular incidents" of antisemitism. "But these are completely disproportionate and indeed unconnected to punishment by withholding research funding."

Earlier this month, 60 universities and colleges across the U.S. received a letter from federal education officials warning they were under investigation for possible “Title VI violations relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination.” Harvard, along with five other Massachusetts schools, were among those put on notice.

WBUR's Simón Rios contributed to this report.