Should Harvard enter into a deal with the Trump administration?

Yahoo

30-06-2025

As Harvard University fights two federal lawsuits against the government, reports of a 'mindbogglingly HISTORIC' deal with the Trump administration drew apprehension from the institution's community and higher education leaders.
To Charles Kuck, former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and an immigration lawyer, Harvard is in a strong position in court right now, so backing down isn't likely.
'I hope I'm not wrong, but my experience doing litigation for 36 years against the government is when they know they're going to lose, they settle,' he said.
But for Harvard junior Nuriel Vera-DeGraff, there are 'very few positive aspects' of Harvard making a deal with the federal government.
Vera-DeGraff fears that if Harvard makes a deal by backing down from defending its academic freedom, it allows the federal government to continue attacking higher education until it gets what it wants.
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The university has so far largely prevailed in court in lawsuits against the Trump administration. A federal judge granted two preliminary injunctions, allowing Harvard University's international students to continue attending school and enter the U.S. to study until the legality of the case is decided.
Harvard hasn't officially confirmed whether a deal is in the works. However, Harvard President Alan Garber privately told a group of around 60 international donors that the institution was in talks with the federal government, according to The Harvard Crimson.
Garber didn't expand upon the timeline or how the institution might settle with the White House. Instead, he focused on concerns about Harvard's community feeling uncomfortable speaking to one another across ideological boundaries or on controversial topics, the outlet said.
A Harvard spokesperson said the institution is continuing to fight in court and pointed to the federal judge siding with the university in the past two preliminary injunctions.
'Harvard will continue to defend its rights — and the rights of its students and scholars," the spokesperson said.
Read more: Harvard Kennedy's backup plan for foreign students: Study online, or in Canada
The deal follows a months-long battle between the university and the Trump administration.
In April, the Trump administration demanded an overhaul of Harvard's leadership structure, admissions and hiring. If the university didn't comply, it risked losing $9 billion in funding, the federal government said.
The actions were taken in the name of antisemitism, as the Trump administration claimed Harvard failed to protect Jewish students, particularly in the wake of the war in Gaza.
Harvard rejected the administration's demands and set the stage for a historic showdown.
The 'stakes are very high' both for higher education and the United States as Harvard considers cutting a deal with the Trump administration, according to Phil Hanlon, former Dartmouth University President.
'I think the Trump administration is likely to use whatever agreement it reaches with Harvard as a template for agreements with other universities, especially elite universities. And it's really important from the university's perspective that whatever agreement is reached, it allows universities to continue to be engines of innovation and prepare students to lead lives of leadership and impact. But I think the stakes are even higher for the nation,' Hanlon said.
If he were the president of Harvard, Hanlon said he would be looking for 'red lines' that the institution shouldn't cross — such as telling faculty what they can teach or what research to do.
Harvard student Vera-DeGraff said giving in to any of the initial demands from the Trump administration would be 'extremely dangerous.'
'I have a very hard time imagining the Trump administration agreeing to a deal that would be, I guess, 'mindbogglingly historic' in his words — which seems pretty positive from his perspective — that would not, again, compromise academic freedom in some way or free speech in some way," he said.
Vera-DeGraff isn't surprised by the prospect of a deal. He said he believes Harvard at least partially sides with the Trump administration, especially when it comes to suppressing pro-Palestine speech on campus, he said.
However, the damage of a deal isn't just theoretical, especially to scientists who have had their funding cut at Harvard.
The impact on research still remains in limbo even if a deal is to go through, according to John Quakenbush, Professor of computational biology and bioinformatics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
'There is still so much collateral damage and it is unclear how things get restarted now that projects have disrupted,' he said.
'A lot of plates have been broken, some irreparably,' he said.
Harvard alumni, through Crimson Courage, whose mission is to stand up for academic freedom, sent an open letter to Harvard administrators on Monday morning calling for the institution to resist caving into the federal government.
They believed the university should live up to its motto of 'veritas,' which means 'truth' in Latin.
'We cannot stand for 'veritas' if we refuse to stand up for truth when the moment demands it or if we dilute our values because it is expedient,' said the community of Harvard alumni.
The Harvard alumni said that academic freedom 'cannot be negotiated away nor yield to political pressure and coercion.'
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In a separate letter to the Harvard administration, Jewish faculty, through Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff, a group of Boston-area-based Jewish faculty, called on Harvard to protect free expression, academic freedom and resist the 'weaponization' of antisemitism in the negotiation process.
The group is made up of 150 Jewish faculty at Harvard and 24 other Boston-area universities.
'Those negotiations are framed by the Trump administration's groundless allegations of institutionalized antisemitism. The accusations have been used to suppress academic freedom and create a climate of fear at Harvard and throughout the US, particularly among Arab and Muslim community members and those who support Palestinian rights,' the faculty wrote in an open letter to Harvard on Monday.
Since Harvard's two lawsuits against the Trump administration began, the university has garnered widespread support, calling into question, for some, why Harvard would want to cut a deal with the Trump administration right now.
Twelve thousand alumni and other individuals and groups expressed their support through legal documents known as amicus briefs, including two dozen universities, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Council on Education, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — also known as FIRE — and Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom.
During graduation and alumni day, Harvard President Garber had to wait on stage to give his speeches because he was met with unrelenting applause.
At Columbia University's graduation, by contrast, students booed the president.
It was in part a response from the university acquiescing to an ultimatum from the federal government — either abide by a list of requirements laid out for them or jeopardize its 'continued financial relationship with the United States government.'
Read more: Trump admin threatens Columbia U. accreditation over Jewish student harassment
While Columbia agreed to implement a list of policy changes, the university later pledged — after Harvard's decision to push back — not to make any agreement with the federal government that would 'relinquish our independence and autonomy,' according to a message from the university's president.
Columbia's efforts to negotiate haven't 'done them any good' as they haven't been any less susceptible to attacks, according to Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities and a former president at Mount Holyoke College.
For instance, the U.S. Department of Education threatened Columbia University's accreditation due to its response to campus antisemitism.
While that could happen to Harvard as well with a deal, Pasquerella said society 'cannot afford to say we're not going to listen to the other side.'
Harvard's president has been mindful of the impact of compromising academic freedom thus far and hopes the institution continues not to capitulate to the federal government's demands, Pasquerella said.
To Kuck, the power of the negotiation is more in Harvard's court because of the federal judge siding with Harvard on two preliminary injunctions.
A deal would also ultimately bypass mounting expenses for lawyers and associated costs with going to federal court, Kuck said.
Regardless of what happens: a deal or continued litigation, Kuck said the fight with Harvard accomplished its purpose — to paint elite institutions as 'outliers in American society.'
'They could fight and look like idiots, or they could negotiate and claim victory, which is what they'll probably do,' he said.
'The MAGA crowd will now move on to the next thing. All they'll remember in this episode, even though Harvard gets what they want, is Trump stood up to Harvard,' Kuck said.
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Read the original article on MassLive.