Copyright The Boston Globe
Crimson Courage, a Harvard University alumni group that opposes the Trump administration’s attacks on the institution, urged the school to denounce a new “compact” the government has asked nine other elite universities to sign. The proposed agreement would give schools priority for federal funding if they agree to a series of policy changes such as capping enrollment of foreign students and adhering to the administration’s strict definitions of gender. Seven out of the nine schools — including Dartmouth College, Brown University, and MIT — the White House initially asked to sign the agreement have rejected it ahead of a Monday deadline to respond. Harvard was not one of the nine schools but has been wrapped for months in negotiations with the White House over similar issues. Advertisement Many Harvard alumni praised their alma mater for resisting the sweeping demands Trump issued in April, and for suing to overturn federal funding cuts and efforts to ban foreign students. But the letter from Crimson Courage Tuesday urged the school to “be a leader in defending independence” by taking a public stand against the new compact. “Much like the egregious demands of the April 11th Department of Education letter, this compact clearly attempts to force all universities to declare loyalty to an unacceptable ideological agenda,” the group wrote. “Harvard can and should issue the clarion call for all to denounce the compact.” Spokespeople for Harvard and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Harvard has won several early legal battles against the government, including a district court decision that found the Trump administration’s cuts to Harvard’s research grants were illegal. But the university faces several other federal investigations — many of which begun only after Harvard rejected the Trump administration’s demands to overhaul its admissions, governance, and hiring. Advertisement Between a new endowment tax and threats to future funding, the university is also at risk of losing $1 billion per year. Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Kennedy School and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have all laid off staff in recent months. In addition to calling on Harvard to denounce the compact, Crimson Courage reiterated its call that Harvard preserve its academic freedom and independence in any deal with the administration. Harvard has remained locked in negotiations with the Trump administration to resolve the government’s concerns, and President Trump said Sunday his administration had reached “a concept of a deal” worth $500 million where Harvard would open trade schools — backtracking a bit from comments he made earlier this month where he declared a deal had been finalized. “It is not enough to reject the compact. Acquiescing to a deal will neither save Harvard’s research, nor stop future ultimatums from the federal government," the alumni wrote, “We urge Harvard not to make any concessions which sacrifice academic freedom, institutional autonomy and the civil liberties of its entire community.” Aidan Ryan can be reached at aidan.ryan@globe.com. Follow him @aidanfitzryan.
