$ 400 million in less federal funding. This is the threat made by the Trump government against New York University Columbia, which was the epicenter of pro-Palestine student demonstrations for almost a year and a half. Management by the establishment of anti-Semitism on the campus was the main reason put forward by the White House.
Only here, despite Columbia’s announcement concerning the implementation of reforms to follow government requests, the latter does not seem to come back to his threats. This episode was followed very closely by other prestigious universities in the United States-this “Ivy League”-like Harvard (Massachusetts), which seems to have learned a lesson. The University has chosen to stand up to the Republican President and to maintain its university independence, as reported by the American magazine The Atlantic.
Prohibition of wearing the mask for demonstrators, granting the President of the University of direct control to the discipline or even a supervisory department of an entire university department: this is what Columbia University quickly agreed, with only a few minor adjustments.
However, despite an attack on its reputation and a decision that divides among the academics of the establishment, Columbia has still not recovered its federal funding. Worse still, the government would consider new requirements, including university federal surveillance.
Construct universities in submission
“Neither Harvard nor any other private university can be taken in hand by the federal government”Harvard’s lawyers announced for their part. The University of Ivy League, threatened in turn by Donald Trump by a cup of $ 9 billion (around 8 billion euros) of federal subsidies and contracts, decided not to accept “Government conditions as an agreement in principle”.
However, in January 2025, the university had settled two anti -Semitism trials brought by Jewish groups and agreed to adopt a controversial definition of anti -Semitism including certain forms of criticism towards Israel. She also dismissed managers of the Middle East study center, whose programming had been criticized for her bias against the Hebrew state.
Today, Harvard University changes course, perhaps because it has understood the real teaching of the Columbia case: appeasement is ineffective, because the Trump administration does not really seek to reform higher elite education. Rather, she seeks to destroy it, a will also confirmed by the Trumpists.
In an interview with the New York Times, Christopher Rofo, a conservative activist predominantly at the origin of the Trump administration decisions on higher education, explained that his objective was to exploit the three primary resources of politics – the money, power and status – to constrain universities in submission.
Thus, with 53.2 billion dollars of endowment (around 47 billion euros), Harvard seems to have calculated that she could afford to sacrifice part of his resources to preserve his integrity and independence.
