Harvard University President Alan Garber sent a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Monday decrying the actions of the Trump administration against his school while stressing areas of concern shared by both sides.
“We share common ground on a number of critical issues, including the importance of ending antisemitism and other bigotry on campus,” Garber said in his letter, adding Harvard “should embrace a multiplicity of viewpoints rather than focusing our attention on narrow orthodoxies.”
But these goals are “undermined and threatened by the federal government’s overreach into the constitutional freedoms of private universities and its continuing disregard of Harvard’s compliance with the law,” he added.
Garber’s letter is in response to one from the Education secretary last week telling Harvard it is no longer eligible for new federal research grants.
In her letter, McMahon accused Harvard of lowering its academic standards, allowing antisemitism on campus and ignoring the 2023 Supreme Court ruling eliminating affirmative action in college admissions.
