Latest news with #SallyKornbluth
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Harvard gets new legal backing from 5 Ivies and over 12,000 alumni
Twenty four universities, including five Ivy League schools, and more than 12,000 alumni took measures to back Harvard University in its legal battle against the Trump administration, which has threatened it with slashing billions of dollars in grants. Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania, along with several other schools, filed an amicus brief on Monday in support of the nation's oldest university, arguing that the funding freeze would impact more than just Harvard, due to the interconnectedness of scientific research, and would ultimately hinder American innovation and economic growth. Also on Monday, the group of 12,041 Harvard alumni filed a separate brief describing the withholding of funds as a 'reckless and unlawful' attempt to assert control over the school and other higher education institutions. 'The escalating campaign against Harvard threatens the very foundation of who we are as a nation,' the alumni said in the brief. 'We embrace our responsibility to stand up for our freedoms and values, to safeguard liberty and democracy, and to serve as bulwarks against these threats to the safety and well-being of all.' The amicus briefs aim to provide expertise or insight to the court, but the schools and individuals are not parties in the lawsuit itself. Harvard in April rejected the government's list of 10 demands, including auditing viewpoints of the student body, a move the administration says is aimed at addressing antisemitism on campus. After the government threatened to freeze $2.2 billion in multiyear grants and $60 million 'in multi-year contract value,' Harvard hit back with a lawsuit. The brief filed by the universities included other prominent institutions like Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The only Ivy League schools missing were Cornell and Columbia universities. The schools argued that the partnership between the government and academia has long led to critical advancements, from the The Human Genome Project to the Covid-19 vaccine. And that funding cuts to one school could endanger research at others. Harvard, MIT and Princeton, for example, have received funding from the National Institutes of Health for a project that could potentially yield tools to treat Alzheimer's disease. 'The work cannot continue at individual sites; MIT cannot use machine learning to uncover patterns, for example, without data from Princeton and Harvard,' the brief said. The universities said in the brief that the cuts would only cause more harm to the United States' ability to compete in science and academia. 'These cuts to research funding risk a future where the next pathbreaking innovation — whether it is a cure for cancer or Alzheimer's, a military technology, or the next Internet — is discovered beyond our shores, if at all,' the brief said. Sally Kornbluth, president of MIT, said in a letter to the school's community that it was critical to make a legal argument against the funding cuts. 'Although the value to the public of federally funded university research feels obvious to us at MIT, we felt compelled to make the case for its countless benefits to the court and, in effect, to the American people,' Kornbluth said. The Harvard alumni filed their brief in support of the school's motion for a summary judgement submitted last week. If granted, the summary judgment would allow the court to decide the case without a full trial. The alumni, which include comedian Conan O'Brien, author Margaret E. Atwood and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., wrote in the brief that the administration's 'end goal is to narrow our freedoms to learn, teach, think, and act, and to claim for itself the right to dictate who may enjoy those freedoms.' The alumni also slammed the administration's concerns over antisemitism as rationale over the funding freeze. 'We unequivocally condemn antisemitism and every other form of discrimination and hate, which have no place at Harvard or anywhere else in our society,' the alumni said in its brief. 'Yet charges of antisemitism — particularly without due process and proper bases and findings by the Government — should not be used as a pretext for the illegal and unconstitutional punishment and takeover of an academic institution by the Government.' The government's demands on Harvard, the alumni said in the brief, 'have little or nothing to do with combating antisemitism' or any other form of discrimination on campus. 'Rather, its demands stifle the very engagement, teaching, and research that bring communities together, heighten our understanding of one another, and advance solutions that directly benefit us all,' the brief said. The show of legal support comes amid a monthslong back-and-forth between the administration and Harvard University. Most recently, the school sued the administration after Trump issued a proclamation last week denying visas for foreign students trying to come to the U.S. to attend the prestigious school. This article was originally published on
NBC News
10-06-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Harvard gets new legal backing from 5 Ivies and over 12,000 alumni
Twenty four universities, including five Ivy League schools, and more than 12,000 alumni took measures to back Harvard University in its legal battle against the Trump administration, which has threatened it with slashing billions of dollars in grants. Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania, along with several other schools, filed an amicus brief on Monday in support of the nation's oldest university, arguing that the funding freeze would impact more than just Harvard, due to the interconnectedness of scientific research, and would ultimately hinder American innovation and economic growth. Also on Monday, the group of 12,041 Harvard alumni filed a separate brief describing the withholding of funds as a 'reckless and unlawful' attempt to assert control over the school and other higher education institutions. 'The escalating campaign against Harvard threatens the very foundation of who we are as a nation,' the alumni said in the brief. 'We embrace our responsibility to stand up for our freedoms and values, to safeguard liberty and democracy, and to serve as bulwarks against these threats to the safety and well-being of all.' The amicus briefs aim to provide expertise or insight to the court, but the schools and individuals are not parties in the lawsuit itself. The filings come after Harvard in April rejected the government's list of 10 demands, including auditing viewpoints of the student body, a move that the administration says is aimed at addressing antisemitism on campus. After the government threatened to freeze $2.2 billion in multiyear grants and $60 million 'in multi-year contract value,' Harvard hit back with a lawsuit. The brief filed by the universities included other prominent institutions like Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The only Ivy League schools missing were Cornell and Columbia universities. The schools argued that the partnership between the government and academia has long led to critical advancements, from the The Human Genome Project to the Covid-19 vaccine. And that funding cuts to one school could endanger research at others. Harvard, MIT and Princeton, for example, have received funding from the National Institutes of Health for a project that could potentially yield tools to treat Alzheimer's disease. 'The work cannot continue at individual sites; MIT cannot use machine learning to uncover patterns, for example, without data from Princeton and Harvard,' the brief said. The universities said in the brief that the cuts would only cause more harm to the United States' ability to compete in science and academia. 'These cuts to research funding risk a future where the next pathbreaking innovation — whether it is a cure for cancer or Alzheimer's, a military technology, or the next Internet — is discovered beyond our shores, if at all,' the brief said. Sally Kornbluth, president of MIT, said in a letter to the school's community that it was critical to make a legal argument against the funding cuts. 'Although the value to the public of federally funded university research feels obvious to us at MIT, we felt compelled to make the case for its countless benefits to the court and, in effect, to the American people,' Kornbluth said. The Harvard alumni filed their brief in support of the school's motion for a summary judgement submitted last week. If granted, the summary judgment would allow the court to decide the case without a full trial. The alumni, which include comedian Conan O'Brien, author Margaret E. Atwood and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., wrote in the brief that the administration's 'end goal is to narrow our freedoms to learn, teach, think, and act, and to claim for itself the right to dictate who may enjoy those freedoms.' The alumni also slammed the administration's concerns over antisemitism as rationale over the funding freeze. 'We unequivocally condemn antisemitism and every other form of discrimination and hate, which have no place at Harvard or anywhere else in our society,' the alumni said in its brief. 'Yet charges of antisemitism — particularly without due process and proper bases and findings by the Government — should not be used as a pretext for the illegal and unconstitutional punishment and takeover of an academic institution by the Government.' The government's demands on Harvard, the alumni said in the brief, 'have little or nothing to do with combating antisemitism' or any other form of discrimination on campus. 'Rather, its demands stifle the very engagement, teaching, and research that bring communities together, heighten our understanding of one another, and advance solutions that directly benefit us all,' the brief said. The show of legal support comes amid a monthslong back-and-forth between the administration and Harvard University. Most recently, the school sued the administration after Trump issued a proclamation last week denying visas for foreign students trying to come to the U.S. to attend the prestigious school.
CNN
30-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
MIT is shuttering DEI office amid Trump administration's push to end diversity programs
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced it will shut down its DEI office, joining a raft of universities scrambling to scale back their diversity, equity and inclusion programs amid President Donald Trump's push to end those initiatives in US schools. In a letter posted online last week, MIT President Sally Kornbluth said the institution will 'sunset' its Institute Community and Equity Office (ICEO) as well as a vice-president role charged with overseeing inclusion programs. Kornbluth insisted MIT is not abandoning efforts to ensure a diverse community but said the university will 'shift focus to community building at the local level' and that the ICEO's signature programs will be taken up by other departments on campus. 'MIT is in the talent business. Our success depends on attracting exceptionally talented people of every background, from across the country and around the world, and making sure everyone at MIT feels welcome and supported,' Kornbluth wrote. A spokesperson for MIT affirmed the school's 'unwavering' commitment to those goals. The spokesperson told CNN that MIT is 'in the process of winding down' the ICEO office but didn't provide a specific timeframe. The decision to close the office follows a months-long review of the university's diversity programs. The assessment was led by Karl Reid, the last Vice-President for Equity and Inclusion, who stepped down in February after barely one year in the job. Word of MIT's announcement comes as the tech school's neighbor, Harvard University, faces a consequential court hearing Thursday that may determine whether international students can attend the university or continue their studies there. The administration revoked Harvard's certification to host international students a week ago, but a federal judge temporarily halted the move after Harvard sued the next day. Thursday's hearing will take place just six miles from campus, where Harvard will be holding its 2025 commencement ceremony for new graduates. MIT's undergraduate commencement is scheduled for the next day. Harvard appears to have also felt the pressure of Trump's anti-diversity program push. Last month, the Ivy League school renamed its Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging to the Community and Campus Life office. In recent weeks, universities across the country have been scrambling to comply with Trump's anti-DEI push in the hopes of holding on to hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants, which fund critical medical research in areas such as cancer and maternal health, among an array of scientific fields. Last month, the Trump administration threatened to cancel medical research funds and to pull the accreditation of universities that have diversity and inclusion programs or boycott Israeli companies. Just hours into his second term, Trump signed an Executive Order declaring diversity, equity and inclusion efforts discriminatory, doubling down on one of the controversial policies he pushed during his first presidency. MIT is among 45 universities targeted in an investigation launched in March by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights for 'allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.' This week the Trump administration escalated its fight against Harvard by moving to cancel all of the university's remaining federal contracts, which total around $100 million, in addition to several billions in grants already canceled or frozen. The university is also locking legal horns with the government on the withheld funding, hoping to unlock $2.2 billion in federal grants frozen by the administration for failing to implement its policy demands.
CNN
29-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
MIT is shuttering DEI office amid Trump administration's diversity program purge
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced it will shut down its DEI office, joining a raft of universities scrambling to scale back their diversity, equity and inclusion programs amid President Donald Trump's anti-diversity push. In a letter on its website last Thursday, MIT President Sally Kornbluth said the institution will 'sunset' its Institute Community and Equity Office (ICEO) as well as a vice-president role charged with overseeing inclusion programs. Kornbluth insisted MIT is not abandoning efforts to ensure a diverse community but said the university will 'shift focus to community building at the local level' and that the ICEO's signature programs will be taken up by other departments on campus. 'MIT is in the talent business. Our success depends on attracting exceptionally talented people of every background, from across the country and around the world, and making sure everyone at MIT feels welcome and supported,' Kornbluth wrote. The decision to close the DEI office follows a months-long review of the university's diversity programs. The assessment was led by Karl Reid, the last Vice-President for Equity and Inclusion, who stepped down in February after barely one year in the job. Kornbluth's letter did not mention the exact dates the changes are meant to take place. CNN has reached out to MIT for comments. In recent weeks, universities across the country have been scrambling to comply with Trump's anti-diversity push in the hopes of holding on to hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants, which fund critical medical research in areas such as cancer and maternal health, among an array of scientific fields. Last month, the Trump administration threatened to cancel medical research funds and to pull the accreditation of universities that have diversity and inclusion programs or boycott Israeli companies. Just hours into his second term, Trump signed an Executive Order declaring diversity, equity and inclusion efforts discriminatory, doubling down on one of the controversial policies he pushed during his first presidency. MIT is among 45 universities targeted in an investigation launched in March by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights for 'allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.' MIT's decision to shutter its DEI office comes as the White House escalates its fight rows with the tech school's neighbor, Harvard University. This week the Trump administration moved to cancel all of Harvard's remaining federal contracts, which total around $100 million, in addition to several billions in grants already canceled or frozen. A week ago, the administration banned Harvard, the nation's oldest and richest university, from enrolling international students, but a federal judge temporarily halted the ban after Harvard sued the next day. The university is also locking legal horns with the government in a bid to unlock $2.2 billion in federal grants frozen by the administration for failing to implement its policy demands.
Fox News
29-05-2025
- General
- Fox News
Massachusetts Institute of Technology shutters DEI office following monthslong 'comprehensive assessment'
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is shutting down its diversity, equity and inclusion office following a comprehensive assessment that began nearly 18 months ago. MIT President Sally Kornbluth announced the closing, or "sunsetting," of the Institute Community and Equity Office (ICEO) last Thursday. "As I've said many times, MIT is in the talent business," Kornbluth's announcement read. "Our success depends on attracting exceptionally talented people of every background, from across the country and around the world, and making sure everyone at MIT feels welcome and supported, so they can do their best work and thrive." Among the top priorities listed in the memo, titled "How we support our community," was a section with the header "Core programs will continue, but we will wind down the central ICEO." "This process began nearly 18 months ago," a university spokesperson told Fox News Digital, noting that the decision followed a "comprehensive assessment" of the Institute. The ICEO, which billed itself online as a steward of "MIT's values and their interconnections," claimed it built "community through care, education, restorative practices, and programming that embraces, celebrates, and helps increase MIT's diversity in all its forms." MIT will also eliminate the role of vice president for equity and inclusion, Kornbluth confirmed. Earlier this month, the school became the first in its class to scrap diversity pledges in its hiring and admissions processes – a practice slammed by free speech advocate organization FIRE as functionally serving as "ideological litmus tests." MIT's decision comes on the heels of the Trump administration's public feud with nearby Harvard University, including a recent ask to pull all federal funds – amounting to a staggering $100 million in contracts – being funneled toward the Ivy League institution. This comes after Harvard has shown little sway in its standoff with the president over foreign student enrollment and alleged race-based admissions. MIT, however, has been downscaling its DEI infrastructure for some time – and the university spokesperson denied any correlation between ongoing political disputes involving Harvard and the ICEO's demise.
