The Trump administration is reviewing $9 billion worth of federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard University, jeopardizing a substantial source of the school’s income over its alleged failure to quell antisemitic and pro-Hamas activity on campus following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.

“Harvard has served as a symbol of the American Dream for generations — the pinnacle aspiration for students all over the world to work hard and earn admission to the storied institution,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said on Monday in a statement announcing the action. “Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from antisemitic discrimination — all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry — has put its reputation in serious jeopardy.”

McMahon added, “Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus.”

The news punctuates months of negative developments out of Harvard University. The institution, America’s oldest and arguably most prestigious of higher education, recently settled a merged lawsuit in which two groups accused it of refusing to discipline an allegedly antisemitic professor and other perpetrators of anti-Jewish discrimination, hate speech, and harassment. For months, its legal counsel strove to dismiss the complainants’ charges, arguing that they lacked legal standing. Meanwhile, its highly reputed Law School saw its student government issue a resolution which accused Israel of genocide; its students quoted terrorists during an “Apartheid Week” event held in April; and dozens of its students and faculty participated in an illegal pro-Hamas encampment attended by members of a group that had shared an antisemitic cartoon.

Antisemitic outrages continued into the 2024-2025 academic year. In November, Harvard’s Office of the Chaplain and Religious and Spiritual Life was criticized by rising Jewish civil rights activist Shabbos Kestenbaum for omitting any mention of antisemitism from a statement precipitated by antisemitic behavior. The sharp words followed the office’s response to a hateful demonstration on campus in which pro-Hamas students stood outside Harvard Hillel and called for it to be banned from campus.

Prior to its federal funding coming under review, Harvard University enacted several measures which appeared to be motivated by the widespread criticism of its response to surging campus antisemitism. It recently fired a librarian whom someone filmed ripping posters of the Bibas children, two babies murdered in captivity by Hamas, off a kiosk in Harvard Yard and denounced him as “hateful.” Additionally, it paused a partnership with a higher education institution located in the West Bank, a move for which prominent members of the Harvard community and federal lawmakers had clamored in a series of public statements.

On Monday, university president Alan Garber, responding to the Trump administration in a statement titled “Our Resolve,” committed to addressing antisemitism while arguing that Harvard’s federal funding contributes to the common good of the country.

“If this funding is stopped, it will halt life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation,” Garber said, adding that “urgent action and deep resolve are needed to address this serious problem that is growing across America and around the world.”

He continued, “It is present on our campus. I have experienced antisemitism directly, even while serving as president, and I know how damaging it can be to a student who has come to learn and make friends at a college or university. For the past fifteen months, we have devoted considerable effort to addressing antisemitism. We have strengthened our rules and our approach to disciplining those who violate them. We have enhanced training and education on antisemitism across our campus and introduced measures to support our Jewish community and ensure student safety and security.”

Harvard University is not the only elite institution to see its federal funding threatened by the Trump administration, which has mounted an aggressive response to the antisemitism crisis on American college campuses even as it oversees the closing of the Department of Education. In March, McMahon announced the cancellation of $400 million in federal contracts and grants for Columbia University, a move that secured the school’s acceding to a slew of demands the administration put forth as preconditions for restoring the money.

Princeton University’s partnerships with the federal government have been suspended as well, according to a Monday report by The Daily Caller, a conservative media outlet. According to the Caller, an administration official said the measure was prompted by a federal investigation of antisemitism on the school’s campus.

President Christopher Eisgruber confirmed the news on Tuesday in an email to the student body shared by The Daily Princetonian. 

“Princeton University will comply with the law. We are committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and we will cooperate with the government in combating antisemitism” Eisgruber wrote. “Princeton will also vigorously defend academic freedom and the due process rights of the university.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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