US Education Director Linda McMahon will halt funding in conflict escalations centered around anti-Semitism claims.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has announced that Harvard University will not receive public funds for research due to a sharp escalation of conflict with top universities.
In a letter to Harvard Monday, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said elite universities should no longer seek federal grants because they created “ock ha ha” for higher education and “no no longer offered.”
“Harvard is no longer a publicly funded institution, instead operating as a privately funded institution, which can use its enormous donations to raise funds from large bases of wealthy alumni,” McMahon wrote in the letter.
The move comes after the Trump administration last month frozen nearly $2.3 billion in federal funds to Harvard last month about its claims it had failed to tackle ramp-prolonged anti-Semitism on campus.
The administration announced the freeze after Harvard rejected a series of requests that it said would be exposed to excessive government control, including agreeing to external audits of faculty and students to ensure “diversity of perspectives.”
McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, outlined a series of complaints that conservatives often make against universities.
“Where are many of these ‘students’ coming from, who are they, and how they enter Harvard, or even into our country. And why is there so much hatred? ” McMahon wrote in a letter, emulating Trump’s use of letters of all capital to emphasize certain words.
“These are questions that need to be answered to more, but the biggest question is, why doesn’t Harvard give the American people a simple answer?”
In a statement, Harvard, who is fighting the Trump administration’s previous fundraising freeze, said McMahon’s latest demands “have calm implications for higher education.”
“Today’s letter poses a new threat to illegally withholding funds for life-saving research and innovation in retaliation against Harvard for filing the April 21st lawsuit,” a university spokesperson said.
“Harvard will continue to promote diversity of perspectives in our communities, promote diversity of perspectives, promote respect, encourage respect, and promote. Harvard will also continue to protect against illegal government overreach, aimed at restraining research and innovation that will make Americans safer and safer.”
US universities have faced controversy over allegations of anti-Semitism on their campuses since last year’s eruption of national student protests over Israeli war in Gaza.
In two reports released last month, the independent Harvard Task Force said students and staff face both anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim bias on campus.
In response to the report, Harvard President Alan Gerber expressed concern that some students were “demanded to the periphery of campus life because of who they are and what they believe,” and pledged to double their efforts to ensure that the university is a place where “mutual respect is the norm.”
Trump and prominent conservatives in the US have accused Harvard and other universities of spreading extreme left-wing views and suffocating right-wing views.
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