Federal agencies reviewing nearly $9 billion in contracts, grants with Harvard over antisemitism concerns

By Jeff Winter and Yash Roy, CNN

(CNN) — Three federal agencies are reviewing nearly $9 billion in contracts and grants between the government and Harvard University over the school’s response to antisemitism.

The departments of Education; Health and Human Services; and the US General Services Administration announced Monday they are reviewing $8.7 billion in grants and more than $255 million worth of contracts between Harvard, its affiliates and the federal government, according to a news release.

“Harvard has served as a symbol of the American Dream for generations – the pinnacle aspiration for students all over the world to work hard and earn admission to the storied institution,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.

“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. Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus.”

The review is the latest effort of a federal task force to combat antisemitism on college campuses after a spate of high-profile incidents around the country in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Harvard President Alan Garber said if the funding were revoked, it would “halt life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation.”

He said that Harvard had addressed antisemitism on campus for the past 15 months, but that there was still work to do.

“We will engage with members of the federal government’s task force to combat antisemitism to ensure that they have a full account of the work we have done and the actions we will take going forward to combat antisemitism,” Garber said in a statement.

Days before the review’s announcement, nearly 800 Harvard faculty members sent a letter to the Harvard Corporation and Board of Overseers urging the school to resist demands from the Trump administration and publicly condemn their attacks on the nation’s universities.

“Ongoing attacks on American universities threaten bedrock principles of a democratic society, including rights of free expression, association, and inquiry,” the letter reads.

The letter outlined three demands: a public condemnation of the administration’s attacks on universities, a legal challenge to any demands that threaten the school’s independence and to work with other universities and Harvard’s alumni networks to oppose the “anti-democratic attacks.”

Last week, Columbia University announced policy changes in response to the Trump administration’s revocation of $400 million in federal funding following campus protests.

“Columbia’s compliance with the Task Force’s preconditions is only the first step in rehabilitating its relationship with the government, and more importantly, its students and faculty,” the ED, HHS and GSA said in a release at the time. They called Columbia’s moves a “positive first step.”

Also last week, an interim dean dismissed the director of Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies as well as his deputy over the “lack of balance” in programming about Palestine, according to the American Association of University Professors’ Harvard chapter.

“Given the wide range of programming (the Center for Middle Eastern Studies) has conducted over the past three years, it is troubling that the university would dismiss a center’s leadership because they hosted two recent events that have been criticized as lacking ‘balance,’” AAUP said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League released an updated report card assessing how US colleges combat antisemitism and protect Jewish students.

Harvard University received a C, moving up two grades from an F the year before.

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