Continued crackdown on universities under the Trump administration

Reuters reported that the Trump administration has resumed its confrontation with Harvard by imposing new limits on the university’s access to federal financial resources for student aid, citing concerns about the “financial condition” of the oldest and wealthiest university in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Education has placed Harvard, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, under “heightened liquidity oversight.”

This represents a departure from standard procedure, requiring the university to use its own funds to cover federal student aid before drawing from the Department of Education’s budget.

During his second term, Trump targeted universities and threatened to cut federal funding over a wide range of issues, including protests by pro-Palestinian students against Israel’s attacks on Gaza, climate initiatives, and equity programs.

The Department of Education has asked Harvard to provide a “credit guarantee” of $36 million to ensure that it meets its financial obligations. In a released letter, the department stated that recent events have raised concerns about Harvard’s financial condition, citing issues such as the university’s decision to issue bonds and lay off staff amid tensions with the White House.

The department also noted that Harvard is at risk of losing access to federal student aid funds due to noncompliance with requests from its Office for Civil Rights.

Harvard has declined to state that it is on the brink of a financial crisis but has cut costs after the Trump administration launched a campaign to use federal funding as leverage over the university and others.

Trump claims that universities allowed anti-Semitism to flourish during last year’s protests. Protesters, however, argue that the Trump administration has wrongly equated their criticism of Israel’s attacks on Gaza and occupation of Palestinian lands with anti-Semitism, and their support for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.