While he is fighting Trump, the top director of Harvard must also keep his own university together

Alan Garber, top director of Harvard University, delivers a battle on two fronts. He has to take Donald Trump away, who threatens to squeeze the famous university with state power. At the same time, he has to keep an internally distributed Harvard and he wants to get rid of the elite setting of the ‘Woke’ image where Trump threaded.

The wear and tear with the president is approaching a legal denouement. Earlier this week, the Ministry of Education announced in a wild letter that the university does not have to submit new applications for federal support and should rely on equity. Harvard has « made a mockery of higher education, » allows « violent » foreign students who « despise » America and is guilty of « hideous racism, » the ministry said with diversity policy for minorities.

The letter is a new attempt by the Trump government to get Harvard to his knees. In the court, the university disputes the freezing of more than two billion federal support. The measures that Trump wants to enforce with that financial pressure would mean that Harvard is placed under state supervision. An inadmissible interference of the state, according to the board of the institution.

It is the chairman of the board Garber mainly about the principle (state challenge) and Trumps method (extortion), rather than a substantive disagreement. Already before Trumps re -election, Garber was busy reforming the university step by step – to the display of groups of students. Harvard has been the scene of protests against the Gaza War since October 2023, which the institution was placed on the accusation of anti-Semitism. Garbers predecessor Claudine Gay had to clear the field at the end of that year after a weak performance for a committee of the House of Representatives and a litter against her of Republican politicians and activists.

Diploma

When he took office, Garber’s anti-Semitism promised-he had personally had to deal with Harvard, he said-and to work on ‘position diversity’, a term that is also used by Trump. A task force started investigating « anti -Semitism and prejudices about Israel » on the campus; A second group bowed about anti-Arabic and Islamophobic expressions.

And there were sanctions. Thirteen students who had participated in Gaza protests were told that they would not receive a diploma. It reproaches Garber that he tacitly bends for right -wing criticism of the university. About a thousand students and teachers walked away in protest at the diploma ceremony in May 2024, Garber was welcomed on boo. His sworn took place behind closed doors at the end of that year as a precaution.

But the chairman of the board also received support, from alumni and others who think Harvard has become too left and did not perform enough at Pro-Palestinian actions. In Jewish circle, Harvard has been based on racism for some time, except apparently when it comes to Jews. Garber is sensitive to that – and yet he is now against will and thanks on a collision course with Trump.

Arts and economist Garber (1955), a driver who whispers rather than screams, is an unlikely opponent of the noisy and bluffing president. He grew up in a Jewish family in Rock Island, Illinois and studied economics at Harvard, where he promoted and became a professor. In the 1980s he obtained a degree as a doctor at the University of Stanford. His specialty is management and economy of healthcare.

Resistance against trade union

Garbers controlled way of doing it made him a candidate for management positions. In 2011 he was appointed as provostan academic function similar to that of a Dutch rector.

Even then he collided with students. Garber opposed the establishment of a trade union for students who do paid work for the university, because this would be at the expense of their studies. Campuskrant unveiled in 2019 The Harvard Crimson That the rector had earned 2.7 million dollars at two pharmaceutical companies. The fuss quickly went out, according to Harvard everything had happened according to the rules. After the unforeseen resignation of Gay, Garber was the successor who would bring the university to the university in a calmer waters.

Things went differently. While Garber had started policies in his first year that is in line with the wishes of the president, Trump opened a tough attack on elite university, for him the symbol of the Left Academia. In April, Garber pulled a line in the sand when the government with a new package presented demands that Harvard de facto would place under guardianship.

Despite his refusal to resign from those requirements, Garbers Reforms continue steadily. In a symbolic gesture, Harvard announced that the agency supervising diversity policy (dei) has been renamed ‘community and campus life’ with immediate effect. The university also stops Affinity Celebrationsseparate diploma celebrations for students from ethnic minorities, with speeches and prices. They are mainly allowances to Trump.

Shortly thereafter, final reports of the two task forces appeared that gave the opinion of around 2,300 students and teachers to Harvard about anti -Semitism and Islamophobia at the university. The findings are painful. The first working group found that after 7 October 2023, « an avalanche » of anti -Semitic messages followed from students and employees on social media. Jewish students reported anti -Semitic comments and incidents.

Fear of sanctions

The second working group reported that 92 percent of the students of Arabic or Islamic origin fear sanctions for their political views. Garber has apologized for the « disappointing and painful » academic year. He has promised to ‘study’ the recommendations of the task forces, including the exclusion of anti-Semitism and ‘anti-Israel-Bias’.

Since the beginning of this year, Harvard has been following the definition of anti -Semitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). It is controversial because that certain criticism of Israel mentions anti -Semitic.

It’s not all enough for Trump. He also threatens to withdraw Harvard’s tax exemption, which can cost hundreds of millions, a step that Garber calls « highly illegal. » On social media Trump scam on Harvard, the Ministry of Education accuses the leading legal magazine of the university, the Harvard Law Reviewof bias in topics and authors.

For Garber it will therefore remain balancing on a weak rord. In addition to his showdown with the president and friction with students, he has another reason to worry. Americans’ confidence in universities is falling. In a poll by Gallup last year, one in three adults said they had little or no confidence in higher education.

This can have an effect on the floors of students but also on the willingness of rich alumni to continue to support their Alma Mater.

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