It has sued the Government of Donald Trump on Monday for the temporary withdrawal of more than 2.2 billion dollars (about 1,930 million euros) in federal funds for the prestigious American institution, the most prominent step in ordered by the Republican Administration against the Pointer Educational Center to force him to reduce what he considers activism in the campus.
“Throughout the last week, the Federal Government has taken a series of actions because Harvard refused to meet its illegal demands,” said the rector of the University, Alan Garber, in a statement. “A few moments we have presented one.”
Harvard’s demand, presented in Boston, specifically mentions, among others, to the Department of Education, the Department of Health, the Department of Justice, Energy and the Administration of General Services.
The Trump administration had sent a letter to the University based in Cambridge (state of Massachussetts) at the beginning of this month, and one of the best in the world, to demand that it radically reform its student admission policy and its educational management. The government of the former real estate tycoon considers with horror that Harvard and others, and that puts too much emphasis on accepting minority students.
In particular the latter is something that stir the guts of this White House. The Republican Administration has among its absolute priorities to eliminate equality and diversity programs, with the argument that they encourage discrimination (against the white and Christian majority) and promote non -qualified people.
Among other things, the letter sent by representatives of the Administration claimed that the rector withdraw the official recognition of a series of clubs and associations of students, and that he would carry out audits about the opinions of their teachers and students to ensure that among them there is a wide variety of opinions. If necessary, to foster that diversity of ideas, you should hire teachers and students of less present ideologies in Harvard. It also demanded hardness against activism, and that it vetoed the admission of international students “hostile to US values.”
The attack on Harvard: the Department of Education has opened research under the pretext of anti -Semitism against more than 60 faculties and universities; At least 1,024 students of 1st faculties have seen their visas revoked or finished since the end of March. But this bundle of the administration against Harvard is the first in which the attacked institution has been reflected very strongly – it can be allowed: it is the richest and oldest in the country – against the claims of the White House. Others, such as the New York Columbia, chose to take out the white flag to the pressures and accept the demands of the administration, or to put on profile to avoid being the next objective. After Harvard’s proposal, other universities, such as Yale or Princeton, have supported him.
A week ago, Garber declared that the University would not accept the demands of the Government, which considers that they violate freedom of expression, protected by the first amendment of the Constitution, and that they would destroy the inquisitive and independent spirit that Harvard considers its mark of the house. Only hours later, the US administration froze the federal funds assigned to the Center for Higher Studies. And the next day, Trump himself lashed out at the university in his social network, Truth, to raise the possibility of withdrawing Harvard’s status as an exempt entity of the payment of taxes “if he continues to encourage political, ideological and inspired crazy things inspired by terrorism.”
“The Government has not found, nor can it find, no rational connection between concerns about anti -Semitism and medical, scientific, technological and others that have frozen and seek to save US lives, encourage US success, protect US security and maintain the position of the United States as a global leader in innovation,” says Harvard in his lawsuit. “Nor has it admitted the serious consequences that the indefinite freezing of billions of dollars in federal funds for research will carry Harvard research programs, the beneficiaries of these investigations, and the national interest in extending US progress and innovation.”
The University raises its pulse against the government as a struggle to defend itself not only to itself and the federal funds it receives, but the very autonomy of the American university system, pride of each center and that for decades have protected a sentence after judgment of the Supreme Court.
“Today we are defending the values that have made American higher education a lighthouse for everyone,” said Garber in a statement to the Harvard community. “We defend the truth that universities and faculties throughout the country can fulfill their legal obligations and their fundamental role in society as well as possible without the inadequate intrusion of the government,” he adds. “This is how we achieve academic excellence, we protect freedom of expression and exploration of ideas and carry out pioneering investigations.”
