Harvard professors Sue Trump on the administration for threat to federal funds
On Friday two groups representing Harvard professors sued the Trump administration, stating that his threat to cut billions in federal funding for the University violates the freedom of speech and other rights of the first amendment.
The cause of the American Association of University Professors and the group of Harvard Faculty of the group follows the Trump administration announcement At the beginning of this month he was examining about $ 9 billion of federal funding that Harvard receives. The administration has also sent to the school a list of requests that must satisfy if it wants to keep the funds.
The case, presented at the Federal District Court of Massachusetts, near A temporary restrictive order to block the Trump administration to cut the funds.
“This action challenges illegal and unprecedented improper use of the Trump administration for the federal funding authority and the application of civil rights to undermine academic freedom and freedom of speech in a university campus,” said the cause.
The White House did not immediately respond to a commentary request.
The Trump administration was in a campaign against elite universities that considers too much lax to anti -Semitism. In a recent letter to Harvard, the administration said that the school “basically failed to protect American students and the faculty from anti -Semitic violence”. Other better schools such as Columbia and Cornell they were also targeted.
Harvard did not respond to a commentary request on Saturday. In recent weeks, Alan Garber, the president of the University, said that Harvard had spent a “remarkable effort” In the last 15 months they turn to anti -Semitismadding that there was even more work to do.
In a statement, Andrew Manuel Crespo, professor of law at Harvard and general consultant of the chapter of the Faculty of AAUP-Harvard, said that the administration’s policies are a pretext for cold universities and their faculties to engage in words, teachings and research that do not align with the opinions of President Trump.
“Harvard’s faculty has the constitutional right to speak, teach and conduct research without fear that the government will sell themselves against their points of view by canceling the subsidies,” said Crespo.
Saturday afternoon, hundreds of demonstrators, including students, professors and even the mayor of Cambridge, have challenged the cold to protest against the threat of the Trump administration to cut Harvard funding. In a Park crowded in Cambridge, in Massachusetts, home of the Harvard campus, they invited the university to lead the accusation against the repression of the government on higher education.
“Harvard has not only the resources to resist pressure,” said Mayor Denise Simmons of Cambridge, “but the moral obligation to do it”.
Miles J. Herszenhorn has contributed to reporting from Cambridge, Mass.
