Dive Temporary:
- The U.S. Division of Protection plans to cut its academic relationship with Harvard College in yet one more effort by the Trump administration to inflict ache on the Ivy League establishment.
- The division mentioned it would discontinue fellowships, certificates packages and graduate-level skilled army schooling for energetic obligation army members at Harvard starting with the 2026-27 tutorial yr. It’ll enable present college students to finish their research.
- In a social media publish in regards to the resolution Friday, U.S. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned, “Harvard is woke; The Battle Division will not be.” The division signaled that it could evaluate related relationships inside two weeks with different U.S. faculties, together with different Ivy League establishments.
Dive Perception:
Amid the unprecedented blitz in opposition to larger schooling up to now yr, the Trump administration’s attacks on Harvard have stood out as uniquely intense and frequent.
The most recent salvo disrupts a long-standing instructional partnership between the Protection Division and the college. In a video assertion on the choice, Hegseth mentioned extra recipients of the Medal of Honor, the army’s highest ornament, attended Harvard than every other civilian establishment. The federal government’s relationship with Harvard stretches again to the Revolutionary Battle period.
At the moment, together with educating army leaders, Harvard conducts analysis for the Protection Division. Between fiscal years 2020 and 2024, Harvard obtained about $300 million in whole funding from the Pentagon, greater than from every other federal company besides the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, which supplied over $400 million yearly to Harvard throughout that interval.
Neither the division nor Hegseth talked about Harvard’s analysis funding particularly, and a Protection Division spokesperson declined to touch upon whether or not Pentagon analysis funding to Harvard was in danger as properly.
Harvard didn’t reply by publication time to a request for touch upon the Protection Division’s announcement.
In reducing ties, Hegseth and the division rattled off an inventory of now-familiar litany of accusations and ideological complaints from the Trump administration about Harvard, together with its research ties to China, allegations that it allowed antisemitism to run rampant on its campus, and its range and inclusion efforts. and that it promoted what Hegseth additionally known as Harvard a middle for “hate-America activism.”
“For too lengthy this division has despatched our greatest and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the college would higher perceive and respect our warrior class,” Hegseth mentioned in his video. “As an alternative, too a lot of our officers got here again wanting an excessive amount of like Harvard — heads stuffed with globalist and radical ideologies that don’t enhance our combating ranks.”
Since final spring, the Trump administration has pursued Harvard with a seemingly obsessive persistence.
In April, the federal government froze $2.2 billion in research funding to Harvard after it rebuffed the administration’s sweeping demands to settle allegations that the college didn’t do sufficient to guard Jewish college students from harassment. A federal choose struck down the freeze in September.
The administration additionally revoked the university’s ability to enroll international college students in Could. A federal choose blocked that transfer only a day afterward.
Regardless of the authorized setbacks, the Trump administration has additionally threatened Harvard’s patent revenue, accreditation, tax-exempt standing and talent to draw federal student aid.
President Donald Trump mentioned final September that the federal government and college have been nearing a deal, although no settlement has materialized to this point. Final week, Trump mentioned on his social media platform that his administration was now in search of $1 billion in damages from Harvard for what he described as “severe and heinous illegalities.” Trump additionally appeared to counsel the federal government ought to examine Harvard on prison expenses.
