Harvard’s response was swift. Less than 24 hours after their academic authorities received a letter Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of National Security (DHS are its acronym in English), in which he communicated the termination of his, the prestigious University sued the administration of Donald Trump on Friday to obtain a precautionary suspension of a measure that lacks precedents.
The announcement of the complaint was accompanied by another letter, sent by the president of the University, Alan Garber, to the academic community. “We condemn this illegal and unjustified action,” Garber writes in the letter. “It endangers the future of thousands of students and academics in Harvard and serves as a warning to innumerable people in universities from all over the country who have come to the United States to continue their education and achieve their dreams.”
The government’s attack involves a climb in the harassment of the White House to the oldest and most wealthy higher education institution in the United States, which accuses of inciting “anti -Semitism” and “terrorism” on its campus. To bend the University, Washington officials had already frozen about 2.7 billion funds
The position of the oldest university (and also with greater funds) of the country has been in these weeks the resistance to the abuses of the Trump administration. Garber has become, in the face of the submissive attitude of the University of Columbia, in an entire symbol of those who defend academic freedom over the interests of the government and its alleged accusations of anti -Semitism.
At the origin of this last fight is the demand of the DHS that Harvard shares the confidential information of foreign students suspected of having participated in proper protests on the campus during the last year. In his letter, Noem decreed the suspension of the “immediate” effect program. “This means that Harvard can no longer register foreign students and that those who are now studying should change university or lose their legal status,” said a
Noem gave the University 72 hours to deliver this information about foreign students, also videos or audios that serve as evidence of their participation in “illegal activities, acts of violence, threats to staff members or students, as well as their involvement in protests in the last five years”. “This administration holds Harvard to promote violence, anti -Semitism and for coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,” “is a privilege, not a right, that universities enroll foreign students and benefit from their most expensive registrations to contribute to increase their billionaires budgets.”
There are about 6,800 international students in Harvard who risk losing their visa, around 27% of students, according to university registration records. It is a figure that has grown in recent years: exchange students have increased by 19.7% since 2010. After knowing the news of the suspension of the exchange program, the stupor between teachers, students and researchers around the world quickly spread. Many did not know what would be of their future. Now they are clear, at least, that the university is willing to stand up to Trump in court.
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