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Interim
president
Alan
Garber
attends
the
373rd
Commencement
Exercises
at
Harvard
University
in
Cambridge,
Massachusetts,
U.S.,
May 23,
2024.
REUTERS/Brian
Snyde |
| |
Harvard
President:
'University
will not
surrender
its
independence
or
relinquish
its
constitutional
rights.’
Alvin
Powell
Harvard
Gazette
6–8
minutes
CAMBRIDGE,
MA -
Harvard
on
Monday
rejected
demands
from the
Trump
administration
that
threaten
$9
billion
in
research
funding,
arguing
that the
changes
pushed
by the
government
exceed
its
lawful
authority
and
infringe
on both
the
University’s
independence
and its
constitutional
rights.
“The
University
will not
surrender
its
independence
or
relinquish
its
constitutional
rights,”
Harvard
President
Alan
Garber
wrote in
a
message
to the
community.
He
added:
“No
government
—
regardless
of which
party is
in power
— should
dictate
what
private
universities
can
teach,
whom
they can
admit
and
hire,
and
which
areas of
study
and
inquiry
they can
pursue.”
Garber’s
message
was a
response
to a
letter
sent
late
Friday
by the
Trump
administration
outlining
demands
that
Harvard
would
have to
satisfy
to
maintain
its
funding
relationship
with the
federal
government.
These
demands
include
“audits”
of
academic
programs
and
departments,
along
with the
viewpoints
of
students,
faculty,
and
staff,
and
changes
to the
University’s
governance
structure
and
hiring
practices.
The $9
billion
under
review
by the
government
includes
$256
million
in
research
support
for
Harvard
plus
$8.7
billion
in
future
commitments
to the
University
and
several
renowned
hospitals,
among
them
Mass
General,
the
Dana-Farber
Cancer
Institute,
and
Boston
Children’s.
Late
Monday,
the
Trump
administration
announced
that it
was
moving
to
freeze
$2.2
billion
in
grants
and $60
million
in
contracts
to
Harvard.
The
Trump
administration
has been
critical
of
Harvard’s
handling
of
student
protests
related
to the
Gaza
war. It
has
accused
the
University
of
failing
to
adequately
protect
Jewish
students
on
campus
from
antisemitic
discrimination
and
harassment,
in
violation
of Title
VI of
the
Civil
Rights
Act of
1964.
Garber
emphasized
that
Harvard
remains
committed
to
fighting
antisemitism,
including
through
a series
of
campus
measures
implemented
over the
past 15
months.
In
addition,
he said,
the
University
has
complied
with the
Supreme
Court
decision
that
ended
race-conscious
admissions
and has
worked
to
broaden
intellectual
and
viewpoint
diversity
at
Harvard.
The
University’s
objectives
in
fighting
antisemitism
will
“not be
achieved
by
assertions
of
power,
unmoored
from the
law, to
control
teaching
and
learning
at
Harvard
and to
dictate
how we
operate,”
Garber
said.
“The
work of
addressing
our
shortcomings,
fulfilling
our
commitments,
and
embodying
our
values
is ours
to
define
and
undertake
as a
community.”
Harvard
is just
one of
dozens
of
schools
targeted
by the
Trump
administration
in
recent
weeks.
Last
month,
the
Department
of
Education
sent
letters
to 60
universities,
including
Columbia,
Northwestern,
the
University
of
Michigan,
and
Tufts,
threatening
enforcement
actions
for
noncompliance
with
anti-discrimination
provisions
in the
Civil
Rights
Act of
1964.
The
administration
has
taken
the
additional
step of
freezing
research
funding
at
several
institutions.
Robust
research
and
innovation
partnerships
among
universities,
the
federal
government,
and
private
industry
date to
World
War II.
Government-backed
research
conducted
at
schools
across
the
nation
has led
to
countless
discoveries,
devices,
treatments,
and
other
advances
that
have
helped
shape
the
modern
world.
Computers,
robotics,
artificial
intelligence,
vaccines,
and
treatments
for
devastating
diseases
have all
stemmed
from
government-financed
research
that
crosses
from
labs and
libraries
into
industry,
creating
new
products,
companies,
and
jobs.
In
March, a
report
from the
nonprofit
United
for
Medical
Research
showed
that
every
dollar
of
research
funded
by the
National
Institutes
of
Health —
the
nation’s
largest
funder
of
biomedical
research
—
generates
$2.56 in
economic
activity.
In 2024
alone,
the NIH
awarded
$36.9
billion
in
research
grants,
generating
$94.5
billion
in
economic
activity
and
supporting
408,000
jobs,
according
to the
report.
In an
interview
on
Monday,
Daniel
P.
Gross,
an
associate
professor
of
business
administration
at Duke
University
and
co-author
of a
recent
NBER
working
paper on
the
decades-long
partnership
between
the U.S.
government
and
higher
ed, said
the
withdrawal
of
research
funding
from
universities
would be
“catastrophic”
to
American
innovation.
“Universities
are such
an
integral
part of
the
modern
U.S.
innovation
system
that it
wouldn’t
stand
without
them,”
said
Gross,
who
taught
at
Harvard
Business
School
before
moving
to Duke.
George
Q.
Daley,
dean of
Harvard
Medical
School,
said
that
biomedicine
has long
depended
on a
strong
partnership
with the
federal
government,
one that
has paid
off for
Americans
in
life-saving
advances.
Just
this
month,
he
noted,
the
Medical
School’s
Joel
Habener
was
recognized
with a
Breakthrough
Prize
for his
work on
GLP-1,
which
has led
to
diabetes
and
anti-obesity
drugs.
Daley
also
cited
transformative
work in
cardiovascular
health,
cancer
immunotherapy,
and a
host of
other
conditions.
“As we
look
back
over the
70 years
of that
partnership,
it has
returned
brilliantly
on the
investments
the
government
has
made,”
he said.
“The
fact
that we
have
Harvard,
MIT, and
all
these
extraordinary
hospitals,
that has
been a
magnet
for
venture
capital
investment
and now
we have
the
pharmaceutical
research
infrastructure
being
brought
into our
community.
All of
this is
a jewel
in the
crown of
American
bioscience.”
The
threat
to that
science
is an
even
bigger
issue in
an era
of
stepped-up
competition
with
China,
he
added.
“It
seems
self-defeating
and
injurious
to the
economy
and to
U.S.
leadership
in
biotechnology
and
pharmaceuticals,”
Daley
said.
“It
feels
like the
hammer
has come
down in
a way
that
threatens
something
that is
intrinsic
to U.S.
leadership
and
ultimately
to our
economic
competitiveness
with
places
like
China,
which
are
investing
very,
very
heavily
in
biotechnology.”
In his
message
to the
community,
Garber
stressed
the
contributions
of
university
research
to
scientific
and
medical
progress
while
underlining
the
importance
of
independent
thought
and
scholarship.
“Freedom
of
thought
and
inquiry,
along
with the
government’s
longstanding
commitment
to
respect
and
protect
it, has
enabled
universities
to
contribute
in vital
ways to
a free
society
and to
healthier,
more
prosperous
lives
for
people
everywhere,”
he said.
“All of
us share
a stake
in
safeguarding
that
freedom.”
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