Harvard suits the Trump administration: « attacks the autonomy of the university »

NEW YORK – The arm wrestling between Harvard and President Donald Trump ends up in court. On Monday the University announced that he has started a federal cause against the government of the United States to stop freezing of over 2.2 billion dollars In public funding, accusing the executive of having exceeded the limits of his own legal authority and of threatening the academic independence of the University.

« Over the past week, the government has adopted a series of measures following our refusal to obey illegitimate requests, » said the Rector of Harvard, Alan Garber, in a message to the university community. « A little while ago we presented a cause to stop the blocking of funds, because it is illegal. »

According to the complaint, iThe government would have used the financial leverage to exercise political and ideological pressures, By advanced requests that include the reform of university leaders, changes to admission policies, the surveillance of student clubs and an ideological audit on diversity programs. The White House had also asked to appoint an external supervisor in charge of guaranteeing the pluralism of views in the academic departments.

Harvard refused to submit. And shortly thereafter the blocks were triggered to funding. The administration has justified its actions as part of the campaign to combat anti-Semitism on campus, accusing Harvard and other elite universities of not having sufficiently protected Jewish students during the pro-Palestinian protests that broke out last year.

But for Harvard, that of anti -Semitism is only an instrumental justification. « The government is trying to use this crisis as a pretext to redefine governance and content of American higher education « reads the complaint. « It is a direct attack on the autonomy of universities, motivated by political purposes ».

The cause represents an unprecedented escalation in the conflict between President Trump and the academic world of elite, which Tycoon has always considered hostile. The legal action appoints several members of the Administration as their defendants: among them, the Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., The secretary of education, Linda McMahon, the interim leader of the General Services Administration, Stephen Ehikian, and the actor general Pamela Bondi.

According to internal sources mentioned by ReutersiThe total of frozen federal funds could exceed 9 billion dollars, also involving other universities such as Columbia University. The new structure of the Task Force on anti -Semitism has alerted dozens of academic institutions: its powers are wide and the decisions are made directly from the president’s cabinet.

The visas for foreign students are also in the sights of the government, whose revocation has been ventilated as a punitive measure for non -compliant universities. « An even more serious threat than the cuts to the funds, » said Garber. « International students are an essential part of our educational mission: they enrich dialogue, expand horizons, connect the university to the world ».

The complaint marks The first direct judicial appeal by a University against the Trump administration As part of the new campaign against academic institutions. Previously, groups of teachers of Harvard and Columbia had been sued, accusing the government of exploiting civil rights laws to censor dissent and limit academic freedom.

For Alan Garber, the risk is systemic: The American university serves democracy only if it is free. «We oppose because we believe in the civic and moral role of higher education. And because we cannot allow it to be transformed into a political control tool, « he said.