The U.S. Department of Education has stripped Harvard of $2.2 billion in grants
The U.S. Department of Education said it is stripping Harvard University of $2.2 billion in state funding.
“The Special Joint Office on Combating Anti-Semitism announced a freeze of $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contracts for Harvard University,” the department said in a statement.
Earlier it was reported that the U.S. government is reviewing $ 9 billion in funding for the university. University officials warned that this threatens to curtail educational and research programs. American media reported that the Trump administration made a number of demands to the university’s management to maintain funding, in particular, the abandonment of the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program.
Harvard’s leadership issued a statement on Monday saying it would not allow the government of any party to dictate “to a private university what to teach, who to admit as students and who to hire.”
The White House has previously demanded that U.S. universities protect Jewish students, threatening to cut funding. Anti-Israel rallies are taking place at U.S. universities as the conflict in the Middle East intensifies following the October 7, 2023 attack by the military wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement and Israel’s further bombardment of the Gaza Strip.