Latest news with #Ivy League
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Brown Secures $500 Million Loan After Warning of Financial Issues
Brown University took out another private loan, securing a $500 million agreement after the Ivy League school warned of 'deep financial challenges.' The five-year loan with an unidentified lender carries a 4.44% interest rate which will be paid monthly, according to a securities filing on Friday. The deal comes after Brown entered into a lending agreement for $300 million in April. A number of universities have utilized the capital markets for financing as the Trump administration targets federal funding for higher-education institutions.
Russia Today
a day ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Ivy League in ‘survival mode'
Presidents of Ivy League schools have been pushed into 'survival mode' due to the hardline stance on higher education adopted by the US administration, according to Ohio State University (OSU) President Ted Carter. Since returning to the Oval Office in January, US President Donald Trump has taken a tough stance on the country's higher education system. He has accused top institutions of failing to address anti-Semitism, refusing to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, and mishandling foreign funding and free speech policies. The administration has cut off federal funding to several Ivy League schools, including Harvard and Columbia. 'I can't speak to those institutions because I'm not leading them,' Carter said in an interview with CBS News on Sunday, referring to Ivy League universities. However, he added that his colleagues are 'having to do, I think, what I would call be in survival mode.' The OSU head noted that he is 'not feeling a lot of pressure' and that his university is 'going to be just fine as this plays out forward.' The comments come just days after Columbia University agreed to pay over $200 million in a settlement to resolve federal probes and have most of its previously suspended funding restored. The funding was initially stripped following an investigation into alleged anti-Semitism on campus. The Trump administration placed over 60 universities under federal scrutiny following a wave of pro-Palestinian protests that swept campuses across the US. While Columbia managed to reach a settlement to restore its financing, Harvard remains embroiled in litigation following the termination of approximately $2.6 billion in federal funding. Harvard refused to comply with administration demands to overhaul DEI initiatives, admissions policies, and its handling of campus anti-Semitism. In addition to frozen research grants and ongoing restrictions on international student enrollment, the university now faces the potential loss of accreditation.
News.com.au
22-07-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Judge presses Trump admin on Harvard funding cuts
A federal judge on Monday challenged the Trump administration's reasons for slashing billions of dollars in federal funding to Harvard University, triggering a furious response from the president. Judge Allison Burroughs pressed the administration's lawyer to explain how cutting grants to diverse research budgets would help protect students from alleged campus anti-Semitism, US media reported. Trump preemptively fired off a post on his Truth Social platform blasting Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic president Barack Obama, claiming without evidence that she had already decided against his government -- and vowing to appeal. The Ivy League institution sued in April to restore more than $2 billion in frozen funds. The administration insists its move is legally justified over Harvard's failure to protect Jewish and Israeli students, particularly amid campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza. The threat to Harvard's funding stream forced it to implement a hiring freeze while pausing ambitious research programs, particularly in the public health and medical spheres, that experts warned risked American lives. Harvard has argued that the administration is pursuing "unconstitutional retaliation" against it and several other universities targeted by Trump early in his second term. Both sides have sought a summary judgment to avoid trial, but it was unclear if Burroughs would grant one either way. The judge pressed the lone lawyer representing Trump's administration to explain how cutting funding to Harvard's broad spectrum of research related to combatting anti-Semitism, the Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported from court. "The Harvard case was just tried in Massachusetts before an Obama appointed Judge. She is a TOTAL DISASTER, which I say even before hearing her Ruling," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Harvard has $52 Billion Dollars sitting in the Bank, and yet they are anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-America," he claimed, pointing to the university's world-leading endowment. Both Harvard and the American Association of University Professors brought cases against the Trump administration's measures which were combined and heard Monday. - 'Control of academic decision making' - Trump has sought to have the case heard in the Court of Federal Claims instead of in the federal court in Boston, just miles away from the heart of the university's Cambridge campus. "This case involves the Government's efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard," Harvard said in its initial filing. The Ivy League institution has been at the forefront of Trump's campaign against top universities after it defied his calls to submit to oversight of its curriculum, staffing, student recruitment and "viewpoint diversity." Trump and his allies claim that Harvard and other prestigious universities are unaccountable bastions of liberal, anti-conservative bias and anti-Semitism, particularly surrounding protests against Israel's war in Gaza. The government has also targeted Harvard's ability to host international students, an important source of income who accounted for 27 percent of total enrollment in the 2024-2025 academic year. A proclamation issued in June declared that the entrance of international students to begin a course at Harvard would be "suspended and limited" for six months and that existing overseas enrollees could have their visas terminated. The move has been halted by a judge. The US government earlier this month subpoenaed Harvard University for records linked to students allegedly involved in a wave of pro-Palestinian student protests that the Trump administration labeled anti-Semitic. Washington has also told a university accrediting body that Harvard's certification should be revoked after it allegedly failed to protect Jewish students in violation of federal civil rights law.
Fox News
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Dartmouth president accused of cowardice for staying neutral as Trump targets elite schools
The president of Dartmouth is winning praise from conservatives, while her critics in academia accuse her of cowardice and conformity for her stance on viewpoint diversity. A piece from the New Yorker details the embattled president, Sian Beilock, vowing to uphold institutional neutrality amid the federal government's feud with higher education and rampant antisemitism on college campuses. Dartmouth declined to join a coalition of over 600 universities, including its Ivy League counterparts, in signing a letter in defense of Harvard University as it fights the Trump administration's attempts to freeze billions in funding. In an email to the Dartmouth community explaining her decision not to join the coalition, Beilock reportedly wrote that "receivership, censorship, and external pressures about what can and cannot be taught or studied hamper the free exchange of ideas on our campus and across institutions. Dartmouth will never relent on these values." Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld slammed Beilock's decision to decline to sign the letter. "This is a mix of cowardice, hypocrisy, and naïveté," Sonnenfeld said. "This is Trump's classic playbook: divide and conquer." "Everyone is entitled to their opinion," Beilock told the New Yorker when asked her about the criticism she has received for her decisions. "People ask, 'Why aren't you suing Trump like Harvard?' Well, [the Administration hasn't] made those kinds of demands." President Donald Trump has suspended federal funding to every Ivy League school, except for Penn and Dartmouth, over investigations into anti-Israel protests that have taken place on their campuses since October 2023. Beilock maintains that the university's position is "saving the idea of the university," the New Yorker noted, citing a piece she wrote in the outlet last year explaining her approach. Beilock was the first female president appointed to Dartmouth in 2022. She formerly served as president of Barnard College. The New Yorker noted that the Dartmouth president's primary objective was to take "aim at the perceived censoriousness of campus discourse." Beilock created "brave spaces," a subversive play on the common phrase "safe spaces." Building upon that sentiment, Beilock launched "Dartmouth Dialogues" to facilitate free speech and debate. Beilock introduced a policy of "institutional restraint," mandating that Dartmouth officials, employees and staff refrain from issuing "institutional statements" in order to "provide space for diverse viewpoints to be raised and fully considered …" The New Yorker reported further that "Beilock clashed with Wesleyan's president, Michael Roth, over her adherence to what he called 'a new form of conformism.' Roth went on, 'As a heterodox person, and as a Jew, I'm very suspicious when my compatriots find a new religion, be it viewpoint diversity or be it institutional neutrality.'" Beilock's handling of campus protests in the wake of the Gaza conflict was condemned by students and faculty members. After police clashed with Dartmouth affiliates in a protest in May 2024 where an encampment was constructed, Beilock defended the actions of the police, adding that the encampments were a violation of the school's policy and that their presence was necessary to prevent further violence. Following the events, a motion to censure Beilock was introduced by religion professor Christopher MacEvitt and history professor Annelise Orleck who were both arrested during the protest. Beilock was censured in a 183-163 vote. As of publication, more than 2,700 people signed an alumni petition to urge Dartmouth College to fight federal government attacks on higher education. The petition claims that "our institutions of higher learning face an unparalleled and thoroughgoing assault from the federal government," without directly mentioning the Trump administration. On the other hand, Beilock's convictions have been praised by conservatives. "Her ideas have earned praise from free-speech advocates, conservative publications, and members of the Trump Administration, along with furious condemnation from academic leaders convinced that universities must stand united against Trump," the New Yorker reported. Harmeet Dhillon, assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the US Department of Justice, whic is currently investigating most Ivy League institutions for antisemitism, was noted by the New Yorker as praising Beilock's efforts: "I was so impressed to learn how Dartmouth (my alma mater) is getting it right, after all these years. Kudos to Dartmouth! I heard Jewish student applications are way up!" "I like my president," Jeff Immelt, the former CEO of GE, reportedly wrote on LinkedIn. Beilock did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Al Jazeera
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Hearing begins in Harvard's case against the Trump administration
A federal court has begun hearings in a pivotal case as Harvard seeks to force the United States government to return $2.6bn in federal funding frozen earlier this year. A lawyer for Harvard, Steven Lehotsky, said at Monday's hearing that the case is about the government trying to control the 'inner workings' of Harvard. The funding cuts, if not reversed, could lead to the loss of research, damaged careers and the closing of labs, he said. President Donald Trump's administration has battered the nation's oldest and wealthiest university with sanctions for months as it presses a series of demands on the Ivy League school, which it decries as a hotbed of liberalism and anti-Semitism. Harvard has resisted, and the lawsuit over the cuts to its research grants represents the primary challenge to the administration in a standoff that is being widely watched across higher education and beyond. The case is before US District Judge Allison Burroughs, who is presiding over lawsuits brought by Harvard against the administration's efforts to keep it from hosting international students. In that case, she temporarily blocked the administration's efforts. At Monday's hearing, Harvard is asking her to reverse a series of funding freezes. Such a ruling, if it stands, would revive Harvard's sprawling scientific and medical research operation and hundreds of projects that lost federal money. A lawyer for the government, Michael Velchik, said the government has the authority to cancel research grants when an institution is out of compliance with the president's directives. He said episodes at Harvard violated Trump's order combating anti-Semitism. Judge questions basis for government's findings on anti-Semitism Burroughs pushed back, questioning how the government could make 'ad hoc' decisions to cancel grants and do so across Harvard without offering evidence that any of the research is anti-Semitic. She also argued the government had provided 'no documentation, no procedure' to 'suss out' whether Harvard administrators 'have taken enough steps or haven't' to combat anti-Semitism. 'The consequences of that in terms of constitutional law are staggering,' she said during Monday's hearing. 'I don't think you can justify a contract action based on impermissible suppression of speech. Where do I have that wrong?' Velchik said the case comes down to the government's choosing how best to spend billions of dollars in research funding. 'Harvard claims the government is anti-Harvard. I reject that,' Velchik said. 'The government is pro-Jewish students at Harvard. The government is pro-Jewish faculty at Harvard.' Harvard's lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of waging a retaliation campaign against the university after it rejected a series of demands in an April 11 letter from a federal anti-Semitism task force. A second lawsuit over the cuts filed by the American Association of University Professors and its Harvard faculty chapter has been consolidated with the university's. The April letter demanded sweeping changes related to campus protests, academics and admissions. For example, the letter told Harvard to audit the viewpoints of students and faculty and admit more students or hire new professors if the campus was found to lack diverse points of view. Harvard President Alan Garber has said the university has made changes to combat anti-Semitism but said no government 'should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue'. Monday's hearing ended without Burroughs issuing a ruling from the bench. A ruling is expected later in writing. Trump's pressure campaign has involved a series of sanctions The same day Harvard rejected the government's demands, Trump officials moved to freeze $2.2bn in research grants. Education Secretary Linda McMahon declared in May that Harvard would no longer be eligible for new grants, and weeks later, the administration began cancelling contracts with Harvard. As Harvard fought the funding freeze in court, individual agencies began sending letters announcing the frozen research grants were being terminated. They cited a clause that allows grants to be scrapped if they no longer align with government policies. Harvard, which has the nation's largest endowment at $53bn, has moved to self-fund some of its research, but warned it can't absorb the full cost of the federal cuts. In court filings, the school said the government 'fails to explain how the termination of funding for research to treat cancer, support veterans, and improve national security addresses antisemitism'. The Trump administration denies the cuts were made in retaliation, saying the grants were under review even before the April demand letter was sent. It argues the government has wide discretion to cancel contracts for policy reasons. The research funding is only one front in Harvard's fight with the federal government. The Trump administration also has sought to prevent the school from hosting foreign students, and Trump has threatened to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status. Finally, last month, the Trump administration formally issued a finding that the school tolerated anti-Semitism – a step that eventually could jeopardise all of Harvard's federal funding, including federal student loans or grants. The penalty is typically referred to as a 'death sentence'.
