In his response Monday, Garber denied those charges, saying the university complies with the law and fosters an open academic environment. “Harvard is a place to bring people of all backgrounds together to learn in an inclusive environment where ideas flourish regardless of whether they are deemed ‘conservative,’ ‘liberal,’ or something else,” he said.
The exchange of letters between the top education official in the US government and the leader of the country’s most prestigious and wealthiest university is the latest episode in the extraordinary standoff between the Trump administration and Harvard.
During the past month, the administration’s antisemitism task force sent Harvard a sweeping list of demands and then froze more than $2.2 billion in research funding. The Department of Homeland Security threatened to bar Harvard from enrolling foreign students. Multiple agencies launched investigations into diversity practices and foreign funding. Trump has moved to revoke the school‘s tax-exempt status.
On April 21, Harvard sued the government arguing that these actions violated its constitutional rights.
For months, federal officials have accused Harvard and other elite universities of indoctrinating their students into leftist ideology, allowing campus antisemitism to fester, and engaging in illegal discrimination through diversity programs. Harvard, McMahon wrote in her letter last week, was making “a mockery of this country’s higher education system” and “engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law.”
To address these complaints, the Trump administration has demanded that Harvard overhaul its disciplinary procedures, submit its hiring and admissions practices to federal oversight, expand the ideological diversity of its students and faculty, change its governance structures, crack down on antisemitism, and abolish diversity programs, among other directives. Harvard has refused to comply.
In her letter, McMahon described the demands as “common-sense reforms.”
In his Monday letter to McMahon, Garber acknowledged that there is some overlap between the government’s critiques and his own view of Harvard’s priorities.
“Harvard must foster an academic environment that encourages freedom of thought and expression, and that we should embrace a multiplicity of viewpoints rather than focusing our attention on narrow orthodoxies,” he wrote.
But he said that the government’s methods for intervening in Harvard’s affairs are counterproductive, illegal, and dangerous.
“Harvard’s efforts to achieve these goals are undermined and threatened by the federal government’s overreach,” he wrote.
He also said Harvard is taking its own steps to address antisemitism and other forms of bigotry, and to cultivate an environment where debate and open inquiry can flourish.
Last month Harvard released two lengthy reports on the rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, and announced steps the university is taking to improve the campus environment for Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and Israeli students.
Garber also alluded to changes Harvard has made to its admissions process designed to recruit more students who exhibit “openness and capacity for constructive dialogue and civil discourse.” Before the last admissions cycle, Harvard added a question to its application that prompts applicants to describe an example of constructively disagreeing with a peer.
In response to McMahon‘s directive that Harvard should base its admissions decision on merit rather than identity, Garber wrote that Harvard is “sharpening our focus on individuals and their unique characteristics rather than their race.” In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against Harvard in a case alleging that the school had discriminated against Asian applicants. The ruling banned race-based affirmative action in college admissions nationwide.
Garber defended Harvard’s recruitment of international students and pushed back against McMahon’s contention that they have contributed to campus unrest since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. International students, he said, “come to this country and to Harvard to learn achieve at the highest levels, just as our US students do.” The Trump has revoked many foreign students’ visas and arrested students and recent graduates linked to pro-Palestinian activism.
The government’s funding cuts at Harvard, Garber said, have threatened a research enterprise that “has driven economic growth, innovation, and life-saving discoveries.”
He offered to “share further information” with McMahon about the reforms Harvard has undertaken. But he made no mention of collaborating or negotiating with the administration.
Mike Damiano can be reached at mike.damiano@globe.com.