Harvard had “no choice” but to fight back against the Trump administration, the university’s president, Alan Garber, told NBC.
Harvard announced on Monday that it was suing the federal government after the Trump administration threatened to freeze $9 billion in federal grants and contracts to the university over antisemitism allegations.
Garber noted that he was unsure if Harvard could win the suit, but that “the stakes are so high that we have no choice.”
“We are defending what I believe is one of the most important lynchpins of the American economy and way of life — our universities,” Garber told NBC News’ Lester Holt. “We will not compromise on certain issues. We’ve made that very clear.”
Garber, who is Jewish, argued that pausing funding to Harvard would do little to solve antisemitism on campus, which he acknowledged was a “real problem.”
Misguided antisemitism claims
“Putting that research at jeopardy because of claims of antisemitism seems to us to be misguided,” Garber said. “The effort to address antisemitism will not be advanced by shutting off funding.”
In the lawsuit, Harvard alleged that the US federal government exceeded its statutory and constitutional authority after the administration engaged in arbitrary and capricious threats of withholding almost $9 billion in federal grants and contracts to coerce the Ivy League School into surrendering control, in violation of its First Amendment rights.
However, administration representatives maintain that it was protecting students’ civil rights from Harvard.
“The real threat to higher education comes when places like Harvard let their students’ civil rights get trampled in a spineless attempt to coddle pro-Hamas activists,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields wrote in a statement, as reported by NBC.
“President Trump is standing up for every student denied an education or a safe campus because left-wing universities fail to protect their civil rights. Colleges are hooked on federal cash, and Mr. Garber’s public outburst only fuels the push to shut off the taxpayer money propping up their institution.”
An April 14 statement from the joint task force on antisemitism asserted that protests that popped up over university campuses since October 7, 2023, disturbed students’ learning environment.
“The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable. The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable. It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support,” the statement read.
“Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from antisemitic discrimination — all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry — has put its reputation in serious jeopardy,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a April statement.
