The Trump administration on Monday sought to force Harvard University back to the negotiating table by informing the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college that it will not be eligible for any new federal grants “until they demonstrate responsible management of the university,” an Education Department official said.
The decision was relayed to the university in a letter from Linda McMahon, the education secretary, the Education Department official told reporters on Monday. The letter was the first significant response from the administration since Harvard sued over threats from President Trump and his team to slash billions of dollars from the school’s research funding.
Ms. McMahon’s letter stipulated that Harvard must address concerns about antisemitism on campus, policies that consider a student’s race and complaints from the administration that the university has abandoned its pursuit of “academic excellence” while employing relatively few conservative faculty members.
Harvard officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Monday’s threat from Ms. McMahon suggests that the government may be altering its tactics against universities, or augmenting them. The administration’s first blows to top schools stripped existing grants from universities — a dramatic step but one that also raised the prospect of court challenges.
Harvard, for instance, built its lawsuit against the government around both the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act, which tightly restricts how federal agencies work, after the administration suspended more than $2 billion in funding with little warning.
But university leaders across the country have been privately fearing a more orderly process that would be harder to contest. A blanket ban on grant funding against Harvard, or any other specific school, could still invite litigation — but a deliberate process, some higher education officials believe, would be more difficult to resist in court.
Last month, the Trump administration sent Harvard a list of demands that included auditing professors for plagiarism, reporting to the federal government any international students accused of misconduct, and appointing an outside overseer to make sure that academic departments were “viewpoint diverse.” Since returning to the White House, Mr. Trump has led an assault on the nation’s elite universities, which his administration sees as hostile to conservatives and intent on perpetuating liberalism.
The administration has said the letter containing those demands was sent by mistake, but the fight has continued to escalate. Harvard sued the administration, accusing the government of trying to wield “unprecedented and improper control.” Dr. Alan M. Garber, the Harvard president, has said the consequences of the government’s actions would be “severe and long lasting.”
In the 2024 fiscal year, federally sponsored research dollars accounted for about 11 percent of Harvard’s revenues, or roughly $687 million. And although Harvard’s endowment is worth more than $53 billion, much of that money is restricted, limiting how the university may spend it. A lasting freeze on new grants could unleash financial havoc for Harvard, which has already been making contingency plans and looking to raise money through the bond markets.
