Trump administration looks to end federal contracts with Harvard University
The Trump administration is making its latest move to take away funding from Harvard University on Tuesday, writing in a letter that all federal agencies should look at canceling their government contracts with the Ivy League college or move them somewhere else. There are about 30 outstanding federal contracts with Harvard totaling $100 million, a senior administration official tells CBS News.
The letter from the U.S. General Services Administration alleges that Harvard "continues to engage in race discrimination, including in its admissions process and in other areas of student life." It also claims that the school is not doing enough to project Jewish students from harassment on campus.
"In light of this deeply troubling pattern, each agency should consider its contracts with Harvard University and determine whether Harvard and its services efficiently promote the priorities of the agency," the letter says. "Going forward, we also encourage your agency to seek alternative vendors for future services where you had previously considered Harvard."
The Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that Harvard's race-conscious admission policies were unconstitutional. But since then, Harvard says admissions workers no longer have access to certain information about an applicant's race. The school reported a drop in Black student enrollment last fall after the affirmative action ruling.
Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The federal agencies have a June 6 deadline to respond to the GSA with the actions they are taking.
"The goal at the end is for the government to be out of business with Harvard, but to do it in a way that preserves critical services that agencies think they still need by transitioning that to a new vendor," the senior administration official said.
The official said the contract review would not include the Harvard hospital system. Funding for Massachusetts General Hospital, which has a partnership with Harvard, would not be impacted.
On Monday, Trump said he's considering rerouting $3 billion in Harvard grants to trade schools across the U.S. The administration has already frozen billions of dollars in federal funding to Harvard, and last week moved to block the university from enrolling foreign students.
Harvard has sued the Trump administration, saying the funding freeze is part of the government's efforts to control policies at the school. Harvard president Alan Garber has said that while the school has taken steps to address antisemitism, "The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
22 minutes ago
- UPI
Supreme Court revives straight woman's 'reverse discrimination' suit
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday that a straight woman denied a management position in favor of gay hires can revive her Title VII Civil Rights Act job discrimination lawsuit. File Photo by Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States/UPI | License Photo June 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday that a straight woman can move forward with her Title VII Civil Rights Act job discrimination lawsuit, which claimed "reverse discrimination." The justices voted 9-0 to side with Marlean Ames, ruling that she faced a higher burden to be able to sue for discrimination as a straight woman after she was passed up for job opportunities in favor of two LGBTQ applicants. "We conclude that Title VII does not impose such a heightened standard on majority-group plaintiffs," the court wrote. Ames sued the Ohio Department of Youth Services after she was denied a management position in favor of a lesbian woman hired for that job. She also lost out on another job at the agency when a gay man was hired instead as a program administrator. The lower court judgment was vacated and the Ames case was remanded back to the lower court to be heard applying the Supreme Court's finding. The decision said the Sixth Circuit erred when it "implemented a rule that requires certain Title VII plaintiffs-those who are members of majority groups-to satisfy a heightened evidentiary standard." The ruling makes it easier for majority-group plaintiffs to argue "reverse discrimination" lawsuits. At issue was the "background circumstances" rule. As interpreted by the Sixth Circuit, that rule requires members of a majority group to satisfy a heightened evidentiary standard in Title VII lawsuits. "Congress left no room for courts to impose special requirements on majority-group plaintiffs alone," the Supreme Court decision said. "The Sixth Circuit's 'background circumstances' rule requires plaintiffs who are members of a majority group to bear an additional burden at step one. But the text of Title VII's disparate-treatment provision draws no distinctions between majority-group plaintiffs and minority-group plaintiffs." The Supreme Court said that provision "focuses on individuals rather than groups, barring discrimination against 'any individual' because of protected characteristics." The high court rejected Ohio's argument that the "background circumstances" rule does not subject majority-group plaintiffs to a heightened legal standard when they sue alleging discrimination under Title VII. "The 'background circumstances' rule -- which subjects all majority-group plaintiffs to the same, highly specific evidentiary standard in every case -- ignores the Court's instruction to avoid inflexible applications of the prima facie standard," the Supreme Court wrote. The Supreme Court held that "the standard for proving disparate treatment under Title VII does not vary based on whether or not the plaintiff is a member of a majority group." The Civil Rights Act bars discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or national origin." Ohio maintained Ames was not chosen for the jobs in question due to her lack of the necessary vision and leadership skills, not because she was straight. A three-judge Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel agreed that Ames would have been likely to prevail if she was a gay woman. But they ruled against her due to the higher burden created by the Sixth Circuit interpretation of the "background circumstances" rule.
The Hill
27 minutes ago
- The Hill
How Trump's new travel ban differs from his first term
President Trump issued a new travel ban that targets 12 countries and includes partial restrictions on seven others, expanding on the policy he put into place during his first term. Trump's attempts to restrict entry into the United States from certain countries in his first term drew legal challenges and protests at airports across the country. This time around, the administration laid the foundation for the proclamation with an earlier executive order focused on enhanced vetting. Here are the countries targeted by the travel ban, and how they differ from those included in Trump's first-term policy. Trump's first-term travel ban went through multiple iterations after federal courts blocked the initial version. The policy stopped entry into the U.S. for nationals from seven Muslim-majority nations: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Its attempted implementation led to mass confusion and was blocked by a federal judge. The version eventually upheld by the Supreme Court barred entry into the United States for nationals of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. Chad was later removed after the administration said it met its security requirements. Former President Biden revoked Trump's travel ban upon taking office. Perhaps most notably, Syria and North Korea are no longer included on Trump's new travel ban, which goes into effect Monday. Trump during his first term developed a warmer relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and they held two in-person summits. The president last month announced he would lift U.S. sanctions on Syria following the ousting of dictator Bashar Assad in December. Trump said he was encouraged to do so by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Chad, Iran, Somalia, Libya and Yemen are back on the travel ban list. Venezuela is one of seven countries that will have travel 'partially' restricted. In total, the travel ban issued on Wednesday affects 19 countries. Nationals from 12 countries face a full ban. Those include Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Nationals from seven countries will have entry into the United States partially restricted. Those include Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. The New York Times reported that the State Department issued roughly 170,000 visas in total to the 12 countries that are banned from entry, most of which were for tourism, business or study.
TechCrunch
34 minutes ago
- TechCrunch
Introducing Bounce, a tool to move your following between Bluesky and Mastodon
A major development showcasing the potential for the open social web was unveiled Thursday at the online conference known as FediForum. From the makers of Bridgy Fed, a tool that connects decentralized open social networks, like Mastodon and Bluesky, there now comes a new project known as Bounce that will allow users to migrate their social network followers across networks powered by different protocols. This is a significant step towards making the open social web a more viable alternative to the locked-in ecosystems provided by tech giants like Meta, Snap, Google, TikTok, and X — and where you may be able to delete your account and export your data when you leave, but not actually migrate your account to a new app. Today, Mastodon, Bluesky, and other social services that run on their protocols (ActivityPub and the AT Protocol, respectively) allow users to move their accounts within their protocol network. That means a Mastodon user can migrate their account to another Mastodon server, while Bluesky allows users to move their accounts and data from one Personal Data Server (PDS) to another. (The latter is still a work in progress because you can move off of Bluesky's PDS but not back to it!) However, it hasn't been possible for users to move their accounts or retain their followings by moving from one network to another. Now led by a nonprofit called A New Social, the makers of Bridgy Fed have developed technology that will make this type of migration possible. Techcrunch event Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW Image Credits:Bridgy Fed diagram (A New Social) The tech builds on Bridgy Fed to allow users to 'move' their Bluesky account to their Mastodon profile's bridged account (an account that listens for your Mastodon posts and then replicates them on Bluesky so your Bluesky followers can see them), then take the bridged account and 'move' it to the user's Mastodon profile. How all this works under the hood is technically complicated because both platforms have different ways of handling migrations. That's why Bridgy Fed has to function as something of a middleman, enabling the transition with servers of its own, custom-built for the purpose of bridging and moves. Currently a proof-of-concept, the technology will launch into beta in a few weeks — but not for the casual user. 'I don't want to go as far as saying it's a tech demo, but it was really important to prove that this is possible,' says New Social's CEO and executive director, Anuj Ahooja. There are some complications at present, too. You can't move back to Bluesky's PDS because the social network hasn't built out that technology yet, for starters. Also, if someone on Bluesky who isn't bridged interacts with your 'moved' account, you won't see that once you're on the Mastodon side. But the team is working on developing a feature that will notify you of off-bridge interactions, Ahooja says. In addition, Bounce alerts you to how many of the people you follow aren't bridged, so if they ever do bridge, you can re-follow them. Image Credits:Bounce screenshot (A New Social) Ultimately, the team hopes the technology in Bounce would be obscured from the everyday open social user, who could instead decide simply what app they want to use and then go through a few short steps to move their following. And while today, Bounce supports Bluesky, Mastodon, and Pixelfed (an ActivityPub-based photo-sharing app), the longer-term goal would be to support any open social platform and protocol, whether that's a long-form blogging platform like Ghost, or even other networks like those running on Nostr or Farecaster. 'We're trying to create an interface for the open social web to handle some of these tougher movements that you have to make,' explained Ahooja. 'So, if you're unhappy with something Bluesky is doing — or even if you're not unhappy, but you feel like a platform on the ActivityPub side is doing something that you really needed to do…[you could] do these couple of clicks on Bounce,' he added. Bounce is the third project from A New Social. In addition to Bridgy Fed, the organization also launched a settings page a few weeks ago that makes the process of preparing to bridge easier and allows you to set a custom domain for your account. The overall goal at A New Social is to shift the power of social networks back to the people, not the platform makers, by giving them tools that let them move their account, their followings, and leave if a platform ever fails them in some way. This motto of 'People not Platforms' is now emblazoned on merch A New Social sells, like tees, hoodies, hats, cups, and stickers that help monetize its efforts, alongside its Patreon.
