Harvard University President Alan Garber said he would “not compromise” in the Ivy League institution’s fight with the Trump administration over how to combat antisemitism.
Earlier this week, Harvard filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after it pulled over $2 billion in federal funding over accusations that the school is not doing enough to target antisemitism.
“We are defending what I believe is one of the most important lynchpins of the American economy and way of life: our universities,” he said during an interview Wednesday with NBC News’s Lester Holt.
When pressed on whether he believes Harvard will win its lawsuit against the Trump administration surrounding the White House’s extensive demands on the university to combat antisemitism further, Garber replied, “I don’t know the answer to this question, but the stakes are so high we have no choice.”
The lawsuit came after Harvard rejected the Trump administration’s list of demands to change its approach to combating antisemitism, despite initially acquiescing to some of the administration’s requests.
The university argued the Trump administration’s $2.2 billion freeze was unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment by “imposing viewpoint-based conditions on Harvard’s funding.” However, the government argues Harvard violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by not doing enough to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment, constituting a hostile learning environment.
Pro-Palestinian protests at the university, often deemed antisemitic by critics, have rocked Harvard following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. In January 2024, Claudine Gay stepped down as president of Harvard in part over backlash to her response to allegations of antisemitism on campus and her waffling during a congressional hearing where she was asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment.
Garber admitted on Wednesday that his campus has “a real problem” with antisemitism. However, he argued that the Trump administration’s demands and cuts to the university’s federal funding have gone too far.
“We will not compromise on certain issues,” he said. “We’ve made that very clear.”
High-level Democrats such as former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden have praised the university for bucking Trump.
Some conservatives have also expressed skepticism over the White House’s approach to targeting antisemitism, warning that it could be infringing on free speech rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
CHARLIE KIRK SPLITS WITH TRUMP ON ANTISEMITISM CRACKDOWN, WARNS FREE SPEECH RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK
“Racism and antisemitism are both evil and must be opposed,” Trump ally Charlie Kirk said earlier this month. “But a government organized around jailing, impoverishing, or silencing people based on ‘racism’ is what our enemies wanted. We should not repeat their mistakes just because some keffiyeh-wearing communists are protesting on campuses.”
“America’s free speech tradition is our birthright. We should never get rid of it,” he continued.
