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Donald Trump doubled the confrontation of his administration with Harvard University with a threat to abolish the university tax exemption.
Its warning came less than a day after the White House said it would freeze more than $ 2.2 billion in funding for Harvard after the University’s refusal to comply with a series of revisions to its governance and its student discipline.
“Perhaps Harvard should lose its status as a tax exemption and be taxed as a political entity if it continues to push political, ideological and terrorist” disease “,” supporting the disease “. Do not forget that the status of tax exemption depends completely on the action in the public interest! The president wrote on his social platform of truth.
Trump’s threat adds to the concerns among American higher education establishments that the government intends to expand its attacks on what it claims to be the fact of fighting alleged anti -Semitism on campuses.
The Trump administration plans to abolish tax exemption status for American universities and revise the accreditation system that makes them eligible for federal funding, including student loans.
“I think that many Americans wonder why their taxes go to these universities when they indoctrinate not only the students of our country, but also allowed the blatant illegal behavior of such a group,” the White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday.
“The position of the president on this subject is based on common sense, in the basic principle that American Jewish students, or students of all faith, should not be illegally harassed and targeted on the university campuses of our country, and we have unfortunately seen that illegal discrimination takes place on the Harvard campus,” she added.
Harvard said the requests of the administration made on academic freedom and had no regular procedure.
“The university will not renounce its independence or will give up its constitutional rights,” Harvard president Alan Garber said on Monday.
The University is the first high -level institution to withstand administration’s requests after several weeks of threats and frost.
Unlike Harvard, New York Columbia University bowed against administrative requests after $ 400 million in grants have been reduced, which have not yet been reinstated. Instead, the government provides for an aggressive consent order to the court to supervise the university.
But there are signs that universities are starting to challenge the administration. “Harvard’s objections to the letter he received is rooted in the American tradition of freedom, an essential tradition to the universities of our country and which is worth defending,” said Jonathan Levin, president of the University of Stanford.
He added: “The way of causing constructive changes is not to destroy the national capacity for scientific research, or by the government to take command of a private institution.”
The networks of university teachers have already continued the administration, and there are broader actions in progress to challenge a freezing of covers through universities on subsidies linked to subjects such as diversity, equity and inclusion.
Universities also dispute a ceiling on indirect costs associated with subsidies through the country of the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy.
