WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Trump administration has announced a review of billions of dollars in federal funding for some of the nation’s leading universities, alleging they have not adequately addressed antisemitism on their campuses.
The move comes in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent rise in reports of antisemtism on college campuses.
The administration suspended $210 million in federal funding for Princeton University. Harvard University has $9 billion in federal grants and contracts under review.
These institutions have proved themselves incapable or unmotivated to correct their course and to get back to their core mission,” Roni Brunn of the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance said in an interview Tuesday.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon addressed the issue on X.
Harvard has served as a symbol of the American Dream for generations, and it must restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe,” she wrote. “We mean business.”
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) criticized the administration’s approach.
Antisemitism is something uh that we cannot tolerate in our nation, but authoritarianism is not the answer to antisemitism,” said Markey on Tuesday.
Harvard President Alan Garber expressed concern over the potential impact to Harvard operations in a letter. He noted that federal funding supports life-saving research on diseases such as cancer and Parkinson’s.
If the funding stops, so apparently does much of that work. In the letter Garber also acknowledged antisemitism is present on campus conceding he has personally experienced it.
Harvard is among 10 universities under review by a joint federal task force aimed at combating antisemitism amid allegations of failing to protect Jewish students. Other institutions on the list include George Washington University, UCLA, NYU, and Johns Hopkins.
Meanwhile, Columbia University, which had $400 million in federal funding canceled last month, continues to work with the White House to have the funding restored.
