The letter said Harvard has become a “breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination” and faces a “steep, uphill battle” to reclaim its legacy as a place of academic excellence.
“There is a dark problem on Harvard’s campus, and by prioritizing appeasement over accountability, institutional leaders have forfeited the school’s claim to taxpayer support,” the letter said.
It was signed by officials at the Education Department, Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration.
Hours after the latest cuts Tuesday, Harvard filed a legal challenge to several sanctions imposed by the Trump administration in recent weeks. It was filed as an update to the university's April lawsuit seeking to block the initial $2.2 billion freeze.
Harvard has faced escalating sanctions from the White House after becoming the first U.S. university to openly defy the government's demands to limit pro-Palestinian activism and end diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
Trump, a Republican, has said he wants Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status, and the Department of Homeland Security has threatened to revoke the school's eligibility to host foreign students.
Last week, the Education Department said Harvard will receive no new federal grants until it meets the government's demands.
The Trump administration has demanded Harvard make broad leadership changes, revise its admissions policies and audit its faculty and student body to ensure the campus is home to many viewpoints.
The demands are part of a pressure campaign targeting several other high-profile universities. The administration has cut off money to colleges including Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University, seeking compliance with Trump's agenda.
In its amended lawsuit, Harvard said much of the funding that was initially frozen has now been terminated, apparently with no hope to restore it.
A May 6 letter from the National Institute of Health notified Harvard that grants were being cut over allegations of campus antisemitism. It said grants are typically suspended pending an opportunity to take corrective action, but “no corrective action is possible here,” according to the lawsuit.
Harvard later received similar letters from the Defense Department, Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture and other agencies, according to the suit. It's seeking to have those cuts overturned.
Harvard President Alan Garber disputed the government’s allegations in a Monday letter, saying Harvard is nonpartisan and has taken steps to root out antisemitism on campus. He insisted that Harvard is in compliance with the law, calling the federal sanctions an “unlawful attempt to control fundamental aspects of our university's operations.”
The government's letter on Tuesday said Harvard has repeatedly failed to address racial discrimination and antisemitism on campus. It cited the Supreme Court's 2023 decision striking down Harvard's use of race in the admissions process, along with a recent internal report at Harvard detailing cases of antisemitic harassment.
___ Collin Binkley has covered Harvard for nearly a decade — most of the time living half a mile from its campus.
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