US President Donald Trump called Harvard a "joke" Wednesday and said it should lose its government research contracts after the prestigious university refused demands that it accept outside political supervision.
Trump's administration also threatened to ban the famed seat of learning from accepting foreign students unless it bowed to the requirements, as US media reported that officials were considering revoking the university's tax-exempt status.
"Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World's Great Universities or Colleges," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
"Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds."
The Republican is furious at the storied institution -- which has produced 162 Nobel prize winners -- for rejecting his demand to submit to government supervision on admissions, hiring and political slant.
Other institutions, including Columbia University, have bowed to less far-ranging demands from the Trump administration, which claims that the educational elite is too left-wing.
Harvard flatly rejected the pressure, with its president, Alan Garber, saying that the university refuses to "negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights."
Tax exemption
Trump this week ordered the freezing of $2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard, a global research powerhouse.
He also said Tuesday that Harvard "should lose its Tax Exempt Status" as a nonprofit educational institution if it did not back down.
CNN and the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was now making plans to do so following a request from Trump.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields told AFP by email that "any forthcoming actions by the IRS will be conducted independently of the President."
The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, said Wednesday that "if Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students."
International students made up 27.2 percent of Harvard's enrollment this academic year, according to the institution's website.
Demonstrating the broadening resonance of the row, Golden State Warriors basketball coach Steve Kerr spoke out in support of Harvard.
Kerr, sporting a Harvard T-shirt, called the demands on the university the "dumbest thing I've ever heard" and cited his backing of "academic freedom."
Government seeks control
The payments frozen to Harvard are for government contracts with its leading research programs, mostly in the medical fields where the school's laboratories are critical in the development of new medicines and treatments.
Trump and his White House team have publicly justified their campaign against universities as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled anti-Semitism and a need to reverse diversity programs aimed at encouraging minorities.
The anti-Semitism allegations are based on controversy over protests against Israel's war in Gaza that swept across US college campuses last year.
Columbia University in New York -- an epicenter of the protests -- stood down last month and agreed to oversight of its Middle Eastern studies department after being threatened with a loss of $400 million in federal funds.
The claims about diversity tap into long-standing conservative complaints that US university campuses are too liberal, shutting out right-wing voices and giving preference to Black people and other minority groups over whites.
In the case of Harvard, the White House is seeking unprecedented levels of government control over the inner workings of the country's oldest and wealthiest university -- and one of the most respected educational and research institutions in the world.
In a letter sent to Harvard, the administration's demands included:
- ending admissions that take into account the student's race or national origins
- preventing admission of foreign students "hostile to the American values and institutions"
- ending staff hiring based on race, religion, sex or national origin
- reducing the power of students in campus governance
- auditing students and staff for "viewpoint diversity"
- reforming entire programs for "egregious records of anti-Semitism or other bias"
- cracking down on campus protests
By Sebastian Smith/AFP
Comments