Harvard says no chance it will comply with changes feds demand

Summary

Again, all this is being presented as necessary for Harvard to continue receiving research funds. Harvard says nope! The university has decided these demands force it to fight, and it's attacking on two fronts. The first is public-facing; Harvard has turned its homepage into a tribute to its researchers and the work they pursue. Although it starts with a huge banner article as shown here, links to 30 individual articles on research fill the entire page. I have a fairly high-resolution screen, and it took hitting page down nine times to finally reach the bottom, where a handful of links to the rest of the university finally appear. The message is clear: The research that's under threat matters, and humanity will be worse off if its funding is cut. Harvard University's homepage on April 14, 2025. Credit: Harvard Separately, Harvard's legal response, which it made public today, is basically: nope. After detailing the steps the university has already taken to address antisemitism, it gets to the crux of the issue: "your letter disregards Harvard’s efforts and instead presents demands that, in contravention of the First Amendment, invade university freedoms long recognized by the Supreme Court." The harms these demands are meant to address, the letter alleges, haven't actually been demonstrated through processes that are required by law. It continues by essentially calling the government's demands the equivalent of a hostile takeover: The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms as an agreement in principle. Let's be clear: There is a good chance that Harvard is risking a catastrophic loss of funding, resulting in entire research programs being shut down, layoffs, and grad students with no way to pursue their thesis projects. It could well be a crisis that r...