Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

No new grants for Harvard, US education secretary says

The Ivy League school “has made a mockery of this country’s higher education system,” Linda McMahon wrote to the Harvard president.

Widener Library at Harvard University
Widener Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Credit: Wgreaves via Wikimedia Commons.

Harvard University has a tax-free endowment of $53.2 billion, which is larger than the gross domestic product of 100 countries, and it gets billions of taxpayer dollars each year. But instead of using those monies “to advance the education of its students,” it engages “in a systemic pattern of violating federal law,” according to Linda McMahon, the U.S. education secretary.

“Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into the country and why is there so much hate?” McMahon wrote to Alan Garber, the Harvard president, on Monday. “The biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public?”

The secretary charged that Harvard “has made a mockery of this country’s higher education system” and invited foreign students, “who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States,” onto campus.

“This letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek grants from the federal government, since none will be provided,” she wrote. “Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution and can instead operate as a privately funded institution, drawing on its colossal endowment and raising money from its large base of wealthy alumni.”

“Today’s letter marks the end of new grants for the university,” she said.

The Republican Jewish Coalition stated that “the days of failing to protect Jewish students on campus without consequences are over.”

In a draft report delivered to the U.S. president, the commission also called for improved religious accommodations for U.S. service members.
Salah Salem Sarsour, accused of concealing Israeli military court convictions on immigration forms, argued his detention was part of a Trump admin effort to target the pro-Palestinian movement.
CENTCOM stated that the strikes targeted missile, drone and radar facilities after the Islamic Republic attacked a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, calling the assault a violation of the ceasefire.
Now that the primaries are over, “we hope that everyone will come together and be united,” Christine Quinn, chair of the executive committee of the New York State Democratic Party, told JNS.
An Iranian official warned on Friday that the safety of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz without Iran’s permission “cannot be guaranteed.”
“We have put the train back on the tracks and going in the right direction,” said Yechiel Leiter, Israeli ambassador in Washington. “Final destination? Peace between our two countries.”
Benny Gantz, JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan S. Tobin, Gilad Erdan, Mosab Hassan Yousef, Nissim Black and leading voices in security, diplomacy, media, law and Jewish communal affairs headline the summit’s third day in Jerusalem.