Andrew Jack
Appearances
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
This is Today Explained. My name is Andrew Jack. I'm the global education editor at the Financial Times based in New York. Did you go to Harvard, Andrew? I did have a year on a fellowship at Harvard many years ago. Yes. Oh, you did.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Well, I mean, I think certainly in the sense of some degree of skin in the game, I guess.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Well, Harvard, of course, has been in the sights of the Republicans and Donald Trump for many months. Like other leading universities, Harvard for a long time was very quiet in public. It wouldn't speak out. It wouldn't give interviews. It was going about its business.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
And then in recent weeks and months, it's taken a number of moves that some interpreted as attempts to suggest it was responding to to the criticisms of the Trump administration, but also to try and push back any more aggressive enforcement action. So it got rid of some senior leadership at its Middle Eastern Studies Center.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
It's got underway, though we're yet to see it, a detailed report on anti-Semitism on campus and a number of other initiatives. But really, After the demands escalated from the Trump administration at the end of last week, it switched and decided that it wouldn't accept the conditions that were sought from the government and that instead it would defend academic integrity and free speech.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
We don't know the full story, but clearly this is an evolving situation where also presumably the Trump administration officials are adapting in response to a whole series of other actions they've taken both to the higher education sector across the board and to now something like seven of the most elite universities.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
And I suspect that the apparent willingness by Columbia in particular to cede to the demands of the administration gave them a sense of increased empowerment. And so they then stepped up their ask to Harvard.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Then last week, the American Association of University Professors, a network representing professors across the country, themselves took legal action against the administration, if you like, on behalf of Harvard.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
So you were getting those pressures from within and pressures from without, and a lot of concern by all those engaged with higher education about the attacks from the Trump administration.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
You'd have to go back really to October 23 and student protests.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
They barricaded- Of course, Columbia in the heart of New York, lots of TV crews, lots of politicians marching through. So everybody trying to turn it into a test case, and it got very much drawn into the debates during the presidential election.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
And then in the last few weeks, we've seen a series of targeted attacks now on seven of the more elite universities, including Columbia and Harvard, but also Cornell and Princeton and Brown, for example, where they've been told that grants have been frozen and they're bracing for further action by the administration, but still waiting somewhat for communications.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
And as I said, it looks as though Colombia was the test case. It was one that no doubt the Trump administration considered would be the easiest to go after. And indeed, it's now had two presidents resign within the last few months.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Yes, Colombia's endowment is around about $14, $15 billion. $14, $15 billion.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Well, I mean, the first thing to say that you often hear the pushback from even the very well endowed universities is that, you know, those endowments are a long-term investment in their future operations that, of course, much of that money gets reinvested for the longer term. But the surplus of
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Well, and I think, yes. So I think that there's a few things to say here. The first is that certainly much of the surplus income that's generated by endowments is actually used for financial aid. But the second thing is the Ivies argue that, you know, much of the revenue that they generate is
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
from their endowment, that surplus is actually used to provide discounted or even free tuition for those that are talented but come from lower income backgrounds. So, simply to blow out the endowments is, one, difficult because a lot of those reserves that go into endowments are earmarked by the people who give them, the donors, for specific causes.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
But the pressure that we're seeing, the funding withdrawals, the $2.2 billion now at Harvard, for example, that the government says it will withdraw from the university, is actually, well, it's a So this is not, you know, just a subsidy to a rich university to perpetuate their endowment. It's actually money that's very specifically allocated for projects for research for the future of society.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Yes. And I think even at Columbia and a number of the other universities that have been targeted, frankly, despite the complexities we were just discussing, those should provide resources to help them during rainy days. There was a big debate around this after the financial crisis in 2008.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
There were discussions around it during COVID, of course, when students had to go online and classes were cancelled and so on. And I think this is absolutely, as if not more, of an existential moment when, frankly, taking some of that endowment money to cover the additional risks involved
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
of some loss of federal funding and indeed the litigation and uncertainty around it and potentially even some loss of donor funding or students is a cause that would totally justify them dipping into their endowment, but also looking at other sources of income. And incidentally, both Harvard and several of the other universities have also in recent weeks been issuing bonds to
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
So they're going to the bond markets to raise money, and that's cash. So that does give them additional reserves to help support or mitigate or prepare to challenge some of this onslaught that they're facing at the moment.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
Well, of course, don't forget that in the last few weeks, President Trump has decided to wage war on the world with his tariffs. And that's caused, as you all have seen, the stock markets and the bond markets to tank tariffs. or to bounce around in a very uncertain way.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
So if you ought to have a fire sale of your assets, which what these endowments are invested in, it also perhaps wouldn't be the right moment to do so.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
So if you can borrow relatively cheaply with a reputation that's still out there of a great institution like Harvard, get some money in order to prepare for all sorts of uncertainties and short-term demands on cash, that's probably a rational approach to take.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
So to be clear, the first response from Harvard has not yet been legal action. It's not yet launched, as far as we know, a lawsuit, but it has written very robust letters framed in legal language by some pretty top law firms. So it's very clear they're preparing. They've got a robust attempt to respond to the Trump administration.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
But even when that set of statements came out that they wouldn't concede, you already saw very quickly the response from the Trump administration saying, We are immediately freezing $2.2 billion worth of assets. So that was point one. Secondly, we've heard further pushback.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
And indeed, on Truth Social, Donald Trump hinted at some other potential levers and pressure points, including reviewing the tax-exempt, the charitable status of Harvard assets. And this is something that universities have been thinking about or concerned about for a while. Again, obviously, which would have a big financial cost were they to lose that status.
Today, Explained
Why Harvard is fighting back
So a whole series of statements of potential threats of other levers, both financial and legal, that we can expect to see in the weeks ahead.