8 agencies to terminate $450 million in grants to Harvard

Eight federal agencies will be terminating approximately $450 million in grants to Harvard University, according to a May 13 press release from the US Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. The task force, formed in February in response to an executive order, says the funding cuts are a result of Harvard’s failure “to confront the pervasive race discrimination and anti-Semitic harassment plaguing its campus.”The $450 million hit is in addition to the $2.2 billion in multiyear grants that the Donald J. Trump administration ended April 14 after Harvard president Alan M. Garber rejected a list of government demands. They included implementing admissions and hiring reform and discontinuing programs focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Harvard filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on April 21 after the first round of cuts. In a press release announcing the suit, the university says the funding freeze is “unlawful” and goes “beyond the government’s authority.” Harvard has since amended its lawsuit to reflect the new grant terminations. In a May 14 statement, Garber and Provost John F. Manning say the school is working to provide support for its research community amid the cuts. “We will continue to fight the unlawful freeze and termination of our federal grants and to advocate for the productive partnership between the federal government and research universities that has for more than eighty years resulted in pathbreaking scientific discoveries, innovations, and advances in engineering, medicine, and public health,” they write.The anti-Semitism task force’s statement announcing the new cuts