The Trump administration is reviewing around $9 billion in grants to the university in connection with an investigation into alleged Jew-hatred on campus
April 8, 2025 14:47
Harvard University has announced that it is planning to borrow $750 million after the Trump administration froze around $9 billion in federal grant funding.
The money was suspended and is being reviewed in connection with an Education Department investigation into allegations of antisemitism on campus during a spate of pro-Palestine protests across the US higher education system last year.
Harvard recently settled two federal lawsuits over accusations that it was negligent in its handling of “severe and pervasive antisemitism on campus”, with the college adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism as part of the settlement.
The university came under particular scrutiny over the issue of antisemitism after its then-president, Claudine Gay, gave evidence before a Congressional committee in 2023, during which she suggested that calling for the genocide of Jews would not inherently be a violation of the university’s behavioural policies, adding that it would “depend on the context”.
However, it is the opening of a federal investigation of antisemitism in higher education, and the linking of that probe with the provision of funding by the Trump administration, that has now prompted Harvard to try and make up some of its losses.
A spokesperson for the university said: “As part of ongoing contingency planning for a range of financial circumstances, Harvard is evaluating resources needed to advance its academic and research priorities.”
They confirmed that it intends to issue $750 million in taxable bonds for “general corporate purposes”, effectively issuing an IOU to Wall Street investors for the cash.
The move follows a similar $434 million bond issuance last month and $735 million last year.
The injection of funding will help cover some of the gap in research funding left by the grant freeze by supplementing Harvard’s $53 billion endowment – one of the largest of any US college.
Yet it will also see the institutions outstanding debt swell to a predicted £8.2 billion, up from £7.1 billion at the end of the 2024 fiscal year.
Meanwhile, Harvard remains under pressure from the federal government to implement a series of reforms to curb allegedly antisemitic protests. A letter to the university administration last week demanded, among other conditions, the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) schemes, a ban on masks during campus protests and “full compliance” with the Department of Homeland Security on immigration enforcement.
In response, Harvard’s new president, Alan Garber, said: “We fully embrace the important goal of combatting antisemitism, one of the most insidious forms of bigotry."
But he added that, should funding be permanently suspended, it would “halt life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation”.