Latest news with #KatharineMeyer
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump closes in on cutting government ties with Harvard
President Trump is pulling out all the stops in his battle against Harvard University, effectively terminating the federal government's relationship with the country's oldest and richest university. Trump has ordered all federal agencies to end their contracts with Harvard, a move that comes after the school filed two lawsuits against his administration, one over funding and the second regarding its ability to enroll international students. The showdown keeps expanding, and neither side is showing any sign of giving ground. The fight with Harvard has escalated to a point where some are asking what more Trump can take away from the university. 'It has been a real onslaught of moves from the Trump administration to attack Harvard's finances and sustainability over the past couple of weeks, and it's been a real throw spaghetti at the wall situation,' said Katharine Meyer, a fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. Harvard's lawsuit over nearly $3 billion in funding cuts has a hearing set for July, but another $3 billion could be on the way after a Memorial Day threat from Trump. 'I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land,' he wrote in a post on Truth Social. 'What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!' And that doesn't include how much Harvard may lose after the General Services Administration sent a letter to all federal agencies to terminate or move contracts away from Harvard on the basis the university is allegedly engaged in 'race discrimination.' 'I think the administration knows that a lot of these efforts are legally dubious. … It is the very confusion and uncertainty that these attacks bring that is the real impact,' Meyers said. 'The administration is trying to have the uncertainty and the confusion and the constant need for Harvard or other institutions to bring suits against actions, is the goal itself, to sort of sow chaos in a particular institution or in higher education as a whole, that really prevents them from doing their other normal day-to-day work,' she added. Trump has also called for Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status, and advocates fear he could target its student financial aid as well. Experts say the university will likely ultimately prevail in court, but by then, the damage could be done. 'The investigation is the punishment, to spend money and spend time fighting federal actions, and the more time Harvard spends in the headlines, on the defensive, the worst for Harvard, whatever the specifics are the case,' said Rick Hess, senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Meanwhile, the school's world-renowned research community is taking serious hits. A graduate student at Harvard Medical School working on cancer research told The Hill the university has provided temporary funding for her project to continue, but the future is unclear. 'My feeling is that no one at Harvard really knows fully what to expect, and things change from day to day,' the student said, adding that Harvard's administration and students often are finding out new Trump moves against the university at the same time through the news. 'I think a lot of people are rethinking staying in the United States and are considering relocating to particularly European countries for the futures in their careers. … I know a lot of my colleagues are considering alternatives, and I also know that for the incoming students this year, a lot of students, international students, ended up declining offers at Harvard,' the student added. The Hill has reached out to Harvard for comment. The ripple effect could go well past Harvard and the Trump administration as all higher education and the research community could suffer for years to come. Longitudinal studies have been canceled, and researchers are switching fields altogether to avoid chaos. 'Let's say we get back to a situation, an environment, where university research is supported again. … Once bitten, twice shy? Will researchers in universities fear that? Maybe the federal government is going to back research once again. But who knows what happens if a new administration comes in,' said Raymond Brescia, associate dean for research and intellectual life at Albany Law School. 'I think that there's likely to be institutions and researchers who might think twice before undertaking significant research projects if they fear that they could get something started, and then have the rug pulled out from under them in a few years, if the … university somehow falls out of favor with the government,' Brescia added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What Harvard's Federal Funding Cuts Mean for the University
The Eliot House dormitory on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. Credit - Sophie Park—Bloomberg via Getty Images Harvard University is poised to lose its remaining federal funding and ties to the federal government as its battle with the Trump Administration intensifies. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) asked federal agencies in a Tuesday letter to reconsider all federal contracts with Harvard and instead 'seek alternative vendors' for future endeavors. The letter was first reported on by The New York Times. 'The Trump Administration is not backing down from its onslaught of attacks on the institution,' says Katharine Meyer, an education policy fellow at the Brookings Institution. 'No sort of path is too small for them to look into going after.' The GSA and Harvard did not respond to TIME's requests for comment. The university has previously filed multiple lawsuits against the Administration over its actions. Here's what to know about what the requested federal funding cuts, and what they mean for Harvard. The Trump Administration has targeted a number of colleges and universities over their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and pro-Palestinian demonstrations on their campuses, among other issues. Harvard, which has refused to comply with the Administration, has faced particular ire. In April, federal officials sent a letter to Harvard demanding that it modify its hiring practices, implement 'viewpoint diversity' to include conservative ideology, and alter its student discipline regulations or risk federal financial support. Harvard's defiance of the demands initially put $2.2 billion in multi-year federal grants at risk. Another $2.7 million in Department of Homeland Security grants and $1 billion in federal funding for health research are under threat as well. The Trump Administration has also moved to attempt to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status and the university's ability to enroll foreign-born students. A federal judge on Thursday will decide whether a preliminary injunction issued against the latter should be extended. In its Tuesday letter, the Administration cited what it called 'discriminatory practices' related to Harvard's hiring and admissions process, the university's handling of antisemitism on campus, and a 'lack of commitment' to 'national values and priorities' in its request for agencies to cancel remaining contracts with the school. 'This $100 million dollar contract pullback is certainly the smallest effort that we've seen, but I think the cumulative impact is hurtling toward a point where eventually Harvard does not have infinite funds to be able to fill in where they've lost federal contracts and grants and any other sources of their revenue,' says Meyer. Harvard's operating expenses reached $6.4 billion for fiscal year 2024, compared to the more than $3 billion in federal funding for the university at risk under the Trump Administration. Federal sponsorship for research made up 11% of the university's total operating revenue for the 2024 fiscal year. Harvard warns on its website that without federal funding, cutting-edge research into conditions including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes 'will come to a halt midstream, and researchers will lack necessary resources to finish ongoing projects or to finance new ones.' Some Harvard labs, including one working on human organs-on-chips, which replicate the function of organs, have received stop-work orders following the Trump Administration's efforts to slash funding. Those researchers were using that technology to study how certain organs react to radiation therapy. The Administration's move to bar Harvard from enrolling international students could hit another source of the university's funds beyond the money it receives through government grants and contracts. Harvard received more than a fifth of its funding in 2024 from education revenue, including tuition, housing, food income, and more. International students contribute a large portion of that revenue, with more than 6,700 enrolling at the school for the most recent school year. The standard cost of attendance for foreign-born students, many of which pay full price for tuition, is $101, 974. Harvard has mounted legal challenges against the Administration's unprecedented actions. It filed a lawsuit on April 21, citing violations of the First Amendment and claiming federal officials did not abide by the proper procedural rules to slash grant funding. A second lawsuit followed last Friday after officials moved to bar the university from enrolling international students, and a federal judge temporarily blocked the Administration from doing so. Harvard's substantial federal endowment, which distributed $2.4 billion in the fiscal year ending in June 2024, also puts it in a unique financial position to bite back against the Trump Administration's attacks. But restrictions on how the endowment is used mean it can't be relied on as a simple replacement for lost federal funding. And as the lawsuits continue to play out in the courts, some experts warn that the federal government's actions are already changing the higher education landscape. The legal limbo surrounding student visas has led universities worldwide to attempt to entice Harvard international students to transfer to their higher education institutions. Some colleges and universities are also implementing policy changes to proactively avoid Trump's ire. '[Universities] are certainly very worried that the courts will rule that the federal government has the ability to do these ad hoc rescissions of grants and contracts and institutions that don't have the financial means of Harvard are not going to be able to say no,' says Meyer. 'With the legal uncertainty, I think a lot of institutions are reviewing their policies and reviewing their practices and trying to kind of proactively rearrange what they're doing and try to position themselves to be in the federal government's good graces.' Meyer believes that the Trump Administration will likely move to rescind Harvard's ability to award federal financial aid to students, dealing the school a further blow. 'When institutions lose the ability to award federal financial aid just largely because they're truly bad faith actors who are misleading students about their enrollment opportunity,' she says. 'To do so for Harvard because of ideological reasons would be completely unprecedented, but I expect that the Trump Administration is looking through every policy that exists to see if they might have grounds to do so.' Contact us at letters@
Time Magazine
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Time Magazine
What the Trump Administration's Plan to Cancel All Harvard's Federal Funding Means for the University
Harvard University is poised to lose its remaining federal funding and ties to the federal government as its battle with the Trump Administration intensifies. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) asked federal agencies in a Tuesday letter to reconsider all federal contracts with Harvard and instead 'seek alternative vendors' for future endeavors. The letter was first reported on by The New York Times. 'The Trump Administration is not backing down from its onslaught of attacks on the institution,' says Katharine Meyer, an education policy fellow at the Brookings Institution. 'No sort of path is too small for them to look into going after.' The GSA and Harvard did not respond to TIME's requests for comment. The university has previously filed multiple lawsuits against the Administration over its actions. Here's what to know about what the requested federal funding cuts, and what they mean for Harvard. What actions has the Trump Administration taken against Harvard? The Trump Administration has targeted a number of colleges and universities over their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and pro-Palestinian demonstrations on their campuses, among other issues. Harvard, which has refused to comply with the Administration, has faced particular ire. In April, federal officials sent a letter to Harvard demanding that it modify its hiring practices, implement 'viewpoint diversity' to include conservative ideology, and alter its student discipline regulations or risk federal financial support. Harvard's defiance of the demands initially put $2.2 billion in multi-year federal grants at risk. Another $2.7 million in Department of Homeland Security grants and $1 billionin federal funding for health research are under threat as well. The Trump Administration has also moved to attempt to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status and the university's ability to enroll foreign-born students. A federal judge on Thursday will decide whether a preliminary injunction issued against the latter should be extended. In its Tuesday letter, the Administration cited what it called 'discriminatory practices' related to Harvard's hiring and admissions process, the university's handling of antisemitism on campus, and a 'lack of commitment' to 'national values and priorities' in its request for agencies to cancel remaining contracts with the school. 'This $100 million dollar contract pullback is certainly the smallest effort that we've seen, but I think the cumulative impact is hurtling toward a point where eventually Harvard does not have infinite funds to be able to fill in where they've lost federal contracts and grants and any other sources of their revenue,' says Meyer. How would the loss of federal funds impact Harvard? Harvard's operating expenses reached $6.4 billion for fiscal year 2024, compared to the more than $3 billion in federal funding for the university at risk under the Trump Administration. Federal sponsorship for research made up 11% of the university's total operating revenue for the 2024 fiscal year. Harvard warns on its website that without federal funding, cutting-edge research into conditions including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes 'will come to a halt midstream, and researchers will lack necessary resources to finish ongoing projects or to finance new ones.' Some Harvard labs, including one working on human organs-on-chips, which replicate the function of organs, have received stop-work orders following the Trump Administration's efforts to slash funding. Those researchers were using that technology to study how certain organs react to radiation therapy. The Administration's move to bar Harvard from enrolling international students could hit another source of the university's funds beyond the money it receives through government grants and contracts. Harvard received more than a fifth of its funding in 2024 from education revenue, including tuition, housing, food income, and more. International students contribute a large portion of that revenue, with more than 6,700 enrolling at the school for the most recent school year. The standard cost of attendance for foreign-born students, many of which pay full price for tuition, is $101, 974. Where does the battle between Harvard and the Trump Administration go from here? Harvard has mounted legal challenges against the Administration's unprecedented actions. It filed a lawsuit on April 21, citing violations of the First Amendment and claiming federal officials did not abide by the proper procedural rules to slash grant funding. A second lawsuit followed last Friday after officials moved to bar the university from enrolling international students, and a federal judge temporarily blocked the Administration from doing so. Harvard's substantial federal endowment, which distributed $2.4 billion in the fiscal year ending in June 2024, also puts it in a unique financial position to bite back against the Trump Administration's attacks. But restrictions on how the endowment is used mean it can't be relied on as a simple replacement for lost federal funding. And as the lawsuits continue to play out in the courts, some experts warn that the federal government's actions are already changing the higher education landscape. The legal limbo surrounding student visas has led universities worldwide to attempt to entice Harvard international students to transfer to their higher education institutions. Some colleges and universities are also implementing policy changes to proactively avoid Trump's ire. '[Universities] are certainly very worried that the courts will rule that the federal government has the ability to do these ad hoc rescissions of grants and contracts and institutions that don't have the financial means of Harvard are not going to be able to say no,' says Meyer. 'With the legal uncertainty, I think a lot of institutions are reviewing their policies and reviewing their practices and trying to kind of proactively rearrange what they're doing and try to position themselves to be in the federal government's good graces.' Meyer believes that the Trump Administration will likely move to rescind Harvard's ability to award federal financial aid to students, dealing the school a further blow. 'When institutions lose the ability to award federal financial aid just largely because they're truly bad faith actors who are misleading students about their enrollment opportunity,' she says. 'To do so for Harvard because of ideological reasons would be completely unprecedented, but I expect that the Trump Administration is looking through every policy that exists to see if they might have grounds to do so.'
The Hill
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Trump moves to terminate federal government's relationship with Harvard
President Trump is pulling out all the stops in his battle against Harvard University, effectively terminating the federal government's relationship with the country's oldest and richest university. Trump has ordered all federal agencies to end their contracts with Harvard, a move that comes after the school filed two lawsuits against his administration, one over funding and the second regarding its ability to enroll international students. The showdown keeps expanding, and neither side is showing any sign of giving ground. The fight with Harvard has escalated to a point where some are asking what more Trump can take away from the university. 'It has been a real onslaught of moves from the Trump administration to attack Harvard's finances and sustainability over the past couple of weeks, and it's been a real throw spaghetti at the wall situation,' said Katharine Meyer, a fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. Harvard's lawsuit over nearly $3 billion in funding cuts has a hearing set for July, but another $3 billion could be on the way after a Memorial Day threat from Trump. 'I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land,' he wrote in a post on Truth Social. 'What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!' And that doesn't include how much Harvard may lose after the General Services Administration sent a letter to all federal agencies to terminate or move contracts away from Harvard on the basis the university is allegedly engaged in 'race discrimination.' 'I think the administration knows that a lot of these efforts are legally dubious. … It is the very confusion and uncertainty that these attacks bring that is the real impact,' Meyers said. 'The administration is trying to have the uncertainty and the confusion and the constant need for Harvard or other institutions to bring suits against actions, is the goal itself, to sort of sow chaos in a particular institution or in higher education as a whole, that really prevents them from doing their other normal day-to-day work,' she added. Trump has also called for Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status, and advocates fear he could target its student financial aid as well. Experts say the university will likely ultimately prevail in court, but by then, the damage could be done. 'The investigation is the punishment, to spend money and spend time fighting federal actions, and the more time Harvard spends in the headlines, on the defensive, the worst for Harvard, whatever the specifics are the case,' said Rick Hess, senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Meanwhile, the school's world-renowned research community is taking serious hits. A graduate student at Harvard Medical School working on cancer research told The Hill the university has provided temporary funding for her project to continue, but the future is unclear. 'My feeling is that no one at Harvard really knows fully what to expect, and things change from day to day,' the student said, adding that Harvard's administration and students often are finding out new Trump moves against the university at the same time through the news. 'I think a lot of people are rethinking staying in the United States and are considering relocating to particularly European countries for the futures in their careers. … I know a lot of my colleagues are considering alternatives, and I also know that for the incoming students this year, a lot of students, international students, ended up declining offers at Harvard,' the student added. The Hill has reached out to Harvard for comment. The ripple effect could go well past Harvard and the Trump administration as all higher education and the research community could suffer for years to come. Longitudinal studies have been canceled, and researchers are switching fields altogether to avoid chaos. 'Let's say we get back to a situation, an environment, where university research is supported again. … Once bitten, twice shy? Will researchers in universities fear that? Maybe the federal government is going to back research once again. But who knows what happens if a new administration comes in,' said Raymond Brescia, associate dean for research and intellectual life at Albany Law School. 'I think that there's likely to be institutions and researchers who might think twice before undertaking significant research projects if they fear that they could get something started, and then have the rug pulled out from under them in a few years, if the … university somehow falls out of favor with the government,' Brescia added.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump threatens Harvard's tax-exempt status: What to know
The Trump administration's latest threat against Harvard to revoke its tax-exempt status is an unprecedented move that would certainly face legal challenge but could have devastating effects on the university if it is allowed to go forward. The Treasury Department on Wednesday asked the IRS to rescind Harvard's status, The Washington Post reported, after President Trump suggested the idea in a social media post. The move is the latest Trump administration broadside against America's oldest school after it rejected a list of policy demands from the White House, throwing its federal funding into question. 'It would decimate Harvard. Quite frankly, it's hard to imagine how Harvard could operate in any semblance of its current self,' said Katharine Meyer, a fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. Trump threatened Harvard's tax exemption after the university refused to go along with the administration's demands for the Ivy League school to change policies such as its hiring and admissions processes, eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and reorganizing its leadership. The Trump administration also promptly took away $2 billion in federal funding, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has threatened to cut off its supply of foreign student visas. 'Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting 'Sickness?'' Trump wrote in a Tuesday Truth Social post. 'Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!' A spokesperson for Harvard said in a statement to The Hill, 'There is no legal basis to rescind Harvard's tax-exempt status.' 'Such an unprecedented action would endanger our ability to carry out our educational mission. It would result in diminished financial aid for students, abandonment of critical medical research programs, and lost opportunities for innovation. The unlawful use of this instrument more broadly would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America,' the spokesperson added. Tax-exempt designation by the IRS is hard to get rid of — and the agency is supposed to be free of political influence. 'If [Trump] actually asked, or anyone in the White House did, it's illegal and would violate a provision of the Internal Revenue Code that imposes criminal penalties,' said Ellen Aprill, senior scholar in residence at the Lowell Milken Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits at the University of California, Los Angeles Law School. But if procedure is followed properly, 'there are many, many steps in any revocation … And I would expect it to be a long process,' Aprill added. An IRS investigation into violations by Harvard of its 501(c)(3) status would take months, and an organization typically has the opportunity to fix whatever violations are found. And if the IRS goes forward with the revocation, Harvard would be able to challenge it in court. Only one higher education institution has lost its tax-exemption status before. In the 1980s, Bob Jones University saw its status taken away because it would not allow students in interracial marriages to be admitted. 'There is a statement in the case that a decision that a given institution is not charitable should be made only where there can be no doubt that the activity involved is contrary to a fundamental public policy. And the Trump position that DEI is illegal is not a long-standing position. It was legal until he got inaugurated a few short months ago,' Aprill said. Trump has rescinded millions of dollars in federal funding to multiple universities over alleged inaction on antisemitism or violations in their policies about transgender athletes. While civil rights investigations normally have a long process that gives schools time to fix the problems, the Trump administration has taken away funding immediately with no recourse. 'There's a long process, and the administration seems intent on ignoring all of that,' said Steven Bloom, assistant vice president of government relations at the American Council on Education. 'It's likely to send a chilling or have a chilling effect across higher education, but not just higher ed,' Bloom said, pointing out other types of nonprofits such as ones in the climate and sustainability space or diversity, equity and inclusion that the Trump administration might target. 'There are lots of organizations, tax exempt organizations, outside of higher ed that are engaged in activity that in a normal world, no one would question. They may not agree with it, but they certainly wouldn't question pulling their tax exemption. But in this world, that could happen … They're all going to be worried about all this,' he added. Bloomberg estimated in 2024 that Harvard has $465 million in tax benefits. Any hope to make up the amount through donations would face a steep road as donors could no longer use such gifts as a tax write-off. And although Harvard is the richest university in the world with a $53 billion endowment, much of that money is legally obligated to certain programs and cannot be moved around easily. The parts of the endowment that generate revenue would also then be subject to taxes. 'It would impact every portion of the institution currently' said Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president of EdTrust, pointing out Harvard recently made more students eligible for university financial aid. In March, Harvard announced students from families making less than $200,000 would get to go to there tuition free. 'If they lost their tax exempt status, that would impact their ability to pay for maintenance on the campus and that would impact their ability to award financial aid,' Del Pilar said. 'That would impact their ability to hire faculty. It would impact their ability to fund research.' 'They would have to be a, become a, for-profit model in terms of the way they operated,' he added. 'If you're creating intellectual property, they would have to put that on the market. And currently, a lot of that is public good, because it's funded with public research funding. … They would have to monetize in ways that they currently don't, and so, I think it would have a trickle down effect on especially medical advances, technological advances and all the research that they do that has a broader benefit to society.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
