Updated March 31, 2025, at 5:25 p.m.
Three federal agencies announced a review of more than $8 billion in “multi-year grant commitments” to Harvard as part of an ongoing investigation into the University by the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism on Monday.
The review — which was launched by the Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, and the United States General Services Administration — marks a drastic escalation in the Trump administration’s threats against Harvard over its response to pro-Palestine protests and alleged campus antisemitism.
The review also includes more than $255 million in contracts.
It comes weeks after the Trump administration pulled more than $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University, demanding in exchange that Columbia change disciplinary policies and place its Middle Eastern, African, and South Asian studies programs under administrative control.
Columbia ultimately caved to many of the demands — but the exchange resulted in massive national backlash and the abrupt ouster of the university’s interim president. Harvard, confronted with an unprecedented threat to its operations, may be forced to decide how much it is willing to concede in order to preserve its federal funding.
The public announcement of the review into Harvard’s funds did not outline specific demands but linked to a document outlining the conditions issued to Columbia.
“Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination — all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry — has put its reputation in serious jeopardy,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon wrote in the press release.
Just four days before the Trump administration pulled $400 million in federal funding, Columbia received a letter — similar to Harvard’s — saying that its federal grants and contracts were being reviewed. It is unclear whether funding cuts will follow in Harvard’s case.
Under the review, the Trump administration will examine individual contracts to determine whether stop-work orders should be issued. The University will also be expected to provide the White House with a list of federal contracts not included in the initial review.
A University spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We could not carry out our mission the way we do now without substantial federal research support, nor could we provide the benefits to the nation that we do now without that support,” Garber said in a December interview with The Crimson.
Harvard has spent months bracing for an unstable political future and potentially massive losses to its funding — especially after the Trump administration repeatedly threatened research funding. Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 announced a University-wide hiring freeze in early March, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences issued budget guidance in February urging FAS leadership to keep spending flat in fiscal year 2026.
But Monday’s review puts Harvard squarely in the crosshairs of more targeted threats.
At Columbia, then-interim President Katrina Armstrong capitulated to the Trump administration’s demands within two weeks. But after Armstrong seemed to downplay the extent of Columbia’s concessions at a faculty meeting — possibly to pacify an outraged professoriate — she abruptly departed from her seat, which was filled by one of the school’s trustees.
The crisis at Columbia illustrates that, elsewhere, top university brass have opted to trade policy concessions for a chance at leniency.
But similar moves at Harvard could ignite backlash among faculty who see them as compromising its academic independence. In an extraordinary show of unity, more than 600 Harvard faculty signed a letter urging the University’s governing boards to “refuse to comply with unlawful demands that threaten academic freedom and university self-governance.”
The federal antisemitism task force — which is investigating nine other schools, including Columbia — plans to visit Harvard’s campus but has not yet announced a date.
—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.
—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.