Harvard University counters Donald Trump government

The US elite university Harvard refuses to implement the course change required by President Donald Trump, for example when admission of students and thus risks funding funds at billions.

“No government- regardless of which party is in power- should dictate what private universities can teach, who they can allow and hire and what study and research areas they can pursue,” said a letter from the university President Alan Garber. The university will not give up its independence and constitutional rights.

After the letter became known, the Trump government reacted and blocked federal funds of $ 2.3 billion to the respected university. The department to combat the anti-Semitism of the US Ministry of Education justified the reduction with “a troubling standards”, which prevails in the most renowned universities and universities in the United States: “that federal investments are not associated with responsibility to comply with civil rights laws”.

The U.S. government, based in Cambridge in the US state of Massachusetts, asked in a letter on Friday to make several changes and enter into obligations. In the letter, the university asked to report foreign students to the federal authorities in violation of the rules of conduct, to have the diversity of expression checked among students and university staff, and to end the approval of students and to hire personnel according to diversity criteria.

According to US media, around $ 9 billion (7.9 billion euros) in the federal government is at the game for Harvard-for example for research programs. Trump’s government had recently targeted universities. On the one hand, she disrupted diversity programs. They had been introduced to counteract historical disadvantages from blacks or women. Propalestinian protests at various universities in the country last year are also a thorn in the side of the Trump government.

Other elite universities are also targeted by the Trump government. According to threats from Washington, the New York University of Applied Sciences has already made concessions from Washington. Former US President Barack Obama recently demanded universities to which the government deprived of its diversity programs should use their foundation funds or save costs instead of fulfilling Trump’s demands. Harvard is now striving for loans of $ 750 million in order to cushion the reduction in federal funds.

In his replica on the letter from Trump’s government, Harvard President Garber continued to write that the freedom of thinking and research as well as the long-term commitment of the government of respecting and protecting it, universities would have made it possible to contribute to a free society in a decisive way. With regard to the commitment to anti -Semitism required by Trump’s government, Garber replied that the letter made it clear that there is no intention to work with the university in order to combat anti -Semitism in cooperative and constructive ways.

Note: This message has been updated.