US moves to sever remaining Harvard ties: 6 updates

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Tensions between the federal government and Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University have intensified in recent days, with federal officials now moving to end all remaining financial ties with the university, The New York Times reported May 27.

Six updates:

1. The Trump administration is planning to cancel an estimated $100 million in remaining federal contracts with Harvard, according to a letter obtained by the Times that said the U.S. General Services Administration is expected to send to federal agencies May 27. Agencies must respond by June 6 with a list of contract cancellations, one administration official who wished to remain anonymous told the publication. Affected contracts may include a $49,858 National Institutes of Health contract to study the effects of coffee drinking and a $25,800 contract with the Department of Homeland Security for senior executive training, according to the report.

2. The move comes five days after Homeland Security revoked Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification May 22, citing the university’s alleged failure to comply with reporting regulations tied to its handling of antisemitism on campus. Harvard University filed a lawsuit against the federal government May 23 over the move to ban current and future international students. The university also filed a temporary restraining order to block implementation of the ban, which a federal judge in Boston granted the morning of May 23, according to the Times.

“This lawsuit seeks to kneecap the president’s constitutionally vested powers under Article 2. It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a May 23 statement to Becker’s. “The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our student visa system; no lawsuit, this or any other, is going to change that. We have the law, the facts and common sense on our side.”

3. Harvard’s lawsuit accuses the administration of a “campaign of retribution,” arguing that the move is a clear act of retaliation for the university exercising “its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students.”

4. Harvard President Alan Garber, MD, PhD, denounced the Trump administration’s actions in a May 23 public letter.

“We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action,” he wrote. “It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams.”

5. About 6,800 international students are enrolled at Harvard, accounting for about 27% of its student body, according to the Times. Some Harvard staff members told CNN the ban could further hinder research efforts at the university. 

6. The lawsuit is the second Harvard has filed against the federal government in the past month. In total, the government has halted more than $2.7 billion in funding to Harvard over its alleged failure to address antisemitic harassment and race discrimination. On April 21, the university sued the Trump administration, seeking to block a federal research funding freeze. 

Editor’s note: This article was updated May 27 at 9:30 a.m. CT.

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