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Four Cambridge City Councilors called on Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 to resist the Trump administration’s list of demands threatening nearly $9 billion in federal funding in a policy order set to be voted on during the Council’s Monday evening meeting.
The order was filed just days after the Trump administration announced conditions on Harvard’s access to the funds, including ending all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and banning masks. The policy order called on Harvard to “use all measures possible, including the University’s endowment funds, if necessary, to safeguard academic independence, the rule of law, and democracy.”
Nearly $9 billion in long-term grants and contracts hangs in the balance, though the administration demanded “immediate cooperation” and did not provide a deadline for the changes, which also include “full cooperation” with the Department of Homeland Security and other “organizational changes as necessary to enable full compliance.”
If the policy order passes, it will be delivered to the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body.
The body met over the weekend with several Harvard professors and members of the Board of Overseers, the University’s second-highest governing body, to discuss their response to Trump. Neither the Corporation nor Garber has made a public statement since the demands were released on Thursday.
The order is cosponsored by City Councilors Patricia M. “Patty” Nolan ’80, Burhan Azeem, Sumbul Siddiqui, and Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern. They asked the other five Councilors to join them “on record to urge, in the strongest possible terms, the Harvard Corporation to stand up in defense of the values that are fundamental to both the University and our democracy.”
The policy order also directs the City Manager to “act with urgency and coordinate a response” to what it characterizes as an “assault on the foundational values of our city as a center of higher learning.”
“It is not hyperbole to draw a parallel between the current administration’s demands and the appeasement policies of the 1930s, when several European nations conceded to the demands of Hitler, contributing to the horrific rise of the Nazi regime and World War II,” the councilors wrote.
A Harvard spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A city spokesperson also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the policy order.
—Staff writer Matan H. Josephy can be reached matan.josephy@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @matanjosephy.
—Staff writer Jack B. Reardon can be reached at jack.reardon@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @JackBReardon.
