The Trump administration is freezing 2.2 billion dollars from Harvard University scholarships on campus activity

The federal government says it freezes more than $ 2.2 billion of scholarships and $ 60 million in Harvard University contracts, after the Foundation said on Monday that it will not correspond to the Trump administration demands to reduce activity on the campus.

In a letter to Harvard University on Friday, the administration called for government reforms and extensive leadership, “merit -based admission” in policies and employment, reviewing the study body, faculty and leadership members on their views on diversity.

The demands, which are an update from a previous message, also require a ban on face masks-a procedure that seems to target pro-Palestinian demonstrators-and pressure the university to stop recognizing or financing “any student group or club that supports or enhances criminal activity, illegal violence or illegal harassment.”

The President of Harvard University, Alan Garper, said in a message on Monday to the Harvard community, that the demands violated the rights of the university’s first amendment and exceed the “legal limits of the government authority under Chapter Six”, which prohibits discrimination against students based on their race, color, or national origin.

“No government – regardless of the party in power – should not be dictated by private universities to teach, who can accept and employ them, and any areas of study and investigation that they can follow up,” Garbar said, adding that the university has seized extensive reforms to address anti -Semitism.

“These ends will not be achieved through the assurances of power, inherited from the law, to control teaching and learning at Harvard University and dictate how we work,” he wrote.

“The work of our shortcomings, the fulfillment of our obligations, and the embodiment of our values ​​is our definition and the pledge as a society.”

The demands offered by Harvard University are part of a wider batch to use taxpayer dollars to pressure the major academic institutions to comply with the schedule of US President Donald Trump and influence the campus policy. The administration also argued that universities allowed what they consider anti -Semitism without deterrence in the campus protests last year against the Israel war in Gaza; Schools deny this.

Harvard University is one of several schools of LaPay Leib, which is targeted in a pressure campaign by the administration, which also stopped federal funds for institutions – including the University of Pennsylvania, Berion and Bruneston – to force compliance.

Harvard’s request is similar to those that paid changes at Columbia University at a threat of billions of dollars.

The demands of the Trump administration have prompted a group of graduates to write to university leaders who call for it to “competition law and refuse to comply with illegal demands that threaten academic freedom and university self -government.”

“Harvard stood today for the integrity, values ​​and freedoms that work as a basis for higher education,” said Anorima Bahrgava, one of the graduates behind the message. “Harvard reminded the world that learning, innovation and transformational growth will not result from bullying and authoritarian people.”

It also caused a protest at the weekend of the Harvard community members and the residents of Cambridge, and a lawsuit from the American Association of University Professors on Friday challenge the cuts.

In a lawsuit, prosecutors argue that the Trump administration has failed to follow the required steps under Chapter VI before they start cutting money, and notifying discounts to both university and Congress.

The prosecutors wrote: “These unpopular demands that are not determined are not a way that targets the reasons for any decision to not comply with federal law. Instead, they publicly seek to impose political opinions at Harvard University and the preferences of the policy that was submitted by the Trump administration and the university committed to punish the distorted discourse.”