Harvard University has filed a lawsuit over the Donald Trump administration’s funding freeze, according to the university’s website.
“We filed a lawsuit to halt the funding freeze because it is unlawful and beyond the government’s authority,” the university’s president Alan Garber said in a statement.
Defendants in the lawsuit the educational institution filed in Massachusetts federal court include several US government agencies and high-ranking officials. The complaint says the administration illegally suspended Harvard’s funding because of the university’s refusal to comply with “unconstitutional requirements” to revise its governance, discipline and hiring policies, as well as its diversity programmes.
The university said in a statement the administration blocked $2.2 billion in federal funding and threatened to suspend $1.1 billion in additional grants, as well as tougher rules for international students and the possible revocation of Harvard’s non-profit status.
Trump said Harvard University should be stripped of its funding because it employs “radical leftists, idiots and empty-headed people who can only teach failure to students and so-called future leaders.” In addition, authorities have criticised the university’s response to anti-Semitism, Garber pointed out. The university, like many others in the US, has been the site of pro-Palestinian protests over the war in the Gaza Strip.
The Harvard president noted that he himself is Jewish and called concerns over anti-Semitism valid, but emphasised that the problem needs to be tackled differently.
The Trump administration has also suspended financial support for Cornell, Columbia, Northwestern universities.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll on Trump’s approval rating asked whether “the US president can suspend funding for universities if he disagrees with the way they are run.” 57% of respondents said no, a third of who were the president’s running mates.
