The Trump administration plans to cut $ 9 billion in subsidies in Harvard – Liberation
The administration of Donald Trump at war against American universities. She announced Monday, March 31, that she was planning to deprive Harvard, a private university located in Cambridge, the city of the Boston agglomeration, of around 9 billion dollars in federal subsidies after a « Full exam ». She accuses him of letting the prosper« Anti -Semitism » on his campus. Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the American government has targeted the major universities of the country, theaters in various degrees for more than a year of a student movement against the war waged by Israel in Gaza. Columbia University must have accepted an unprecedented interference in its operation to hope to keep its $ 400 million in grant.
« Although the recent measures taken by Harvard to curb institutionalized anti -Semitism (…) are welcome, the university must do much more to maintain the privilege of receiving the money harder by taxpayers »wrote the government in a joint press release from several federal and ministries, including that of Education. In detail, the administration ensures that it will proceed to the« Full exam » $ 255.6 million in contracts between Harvard and the federal government, as well as « More than $ 8.7 billion in multi -year subsidies ». The university’s annual budget is just over $ 6.4 billion.
« This examination is part of the efforts » government « To fight against anti -Semitism »underlines the administration in its press release, while Donald Trump embarked on a crusade against Propalestinian demonstrations on the campuses of major universities. « Harvard’s inability to protect students on campus against anti -Semitic discrimination – while promoting divisive ideologies to the detriment of research freedom – has put its reputation in serious danger »wrote in the press release the Minister of Education, Linda McMahon.
« Harvard can repair these wrongs and regain his rank of campus dedicated to academic excellence and the search for the truth »insisted the minister, evoking the University of Massachusetts to the past as a « Symbol of the American dream ». Harvard president Alan Garner objected in a statement that « If this funding is interrupted, it will put an end to research that saves lives and will jeopardize important research programs and scientific innovations ».
« The government informed us that it was considering this action because it feared that the university had not fulfilled its obligations in the fight against anti -Semitic harassment« , He observed. But Harvard « Has strengthened (its) rules and (its) disciplinary approach with regard to those who violate them » In the past 15 months to combat anti -Semitism on the campus, assured Alan Garner.
The accusation of complacency towards anti -Semitism is only one of the many pretexts used by the Trump administration to cut food for scientists. The prestigious Medical University Johns-Hopkins announced Thursday March 13, having to suppress more than 2,000 positions due to the freezing of almost all the USAID USAID development agency programs. Researchers are not fooled and many want to leave the United States.
According to a survey carried out by the scientific journal Nature With American scientists, 75 % of the 1600 respondents plan to change countries. Some have already started. Among them, Jason Stanley, a philosopher specializing in fascism, leaves the prestigious University of Yale to go to Toronto, Canada. The author of The springs of fascism (Eliott, 2022), whose grandmother left Berlin in 1939explains to want « Raising my children in a country that does not lean towards a fascist dictatorship ». According to CNNtwo historians, Marci Shore and Timothy Snyder, will make the same path of Yale, in Toronto.
