Harvard turns lemons into lemonade…for now
On Friday, April 11, Harvard University received a list of demands from the Trump regime, including changes to leadership and governance, merit-based admissions and hiring, discontinuation of DEI initiatives and disciplinary policies to address protests on campus. In essence, Harvard President Alan M. Garber wrote to the university community on Monday morning, the government was targeting individuals because of their ideological views. “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” wrote Garber.
Harvard’s decision came with a hefty price tag–the federal government froze $2.3 billion in funding for the university, part of a total of $9 billion that the government is “reviewing”.
Harvard is not the only high-profile American university to face such threats–Columbia University has faced the wrath of the Trump regime, allegedly for failing to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests last spring. Cornell, Princeton, Northwestern and Brown Universities are all facing funding cuts.
But Trump has spared his real wrath for Harvard, slashing funding and threatening to cut off their foreign student enrolment and to revoke their tax-exempt status. For any smaller institution, such unprecedented moves could spell bankruptcy. But Harvard, founded in 1636, is not only the oldest highest education institution in the country, but the world’s richest, with an endowment of $53 billion.
And Harvard is in fighting form, slapping back at Trump’s funding cuts with a rapid and slick public relations campaign. The university retooled its main university website with a bold and blunt message: “Research Powers Progress”. The gist–universities are critical hubs for interdisciplinary research and discovery that leads to concrete improvements in life for ALL human beings. And the primary link takes you directly to a by-the numbers breakdown of Harvard’s research funding, a direct response to the government’s allegations on antisemitism, and Garber’s immediate and clear statement: “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.”
Media around the world took notice, and so did alumni and donors. Within two days of Garber’s email to the community, Harvard received nearly 4,000 online donations, totaling $1.14 million. The biggest surge came just after Trump announced the funding cuts at 7:30 pm on Monday night–-between 8 p.m. and midnight, 1,000 gifts poured in. Overall, seventy-seven percent of the gifts have been less than $250. While I fully admit that I am not a fundraiser by training, theory suggests this points to a willingness to give, even if the donor may not have significant funds, or it could be the gateway to a larger future gift. And Harvard is also reaching out to its largest donors requesting their aid in this fight.
According to Harvard, eight of its alumni signed the Declaration of Independence. Today, the targeted attacks of the federal government are challenging the foundations of that document, worrying the Harvard community and the higher education sector worldwide. Harvard is facing a challenge unlike anything in its 389-year history. And it may take every scrap of Harvard’s history and financial heft to fight the smackdown Trump hopes to deliver.