Harvard teachers process Trump government for threatening of funds

The Harvard group of the American Association of University Teachers (AAUP), along with the National Organization, filed a lawsuit against the changes required by the Trump administration, while the government reviews nearly $ 9 billion in federal funding.

The action was filed on Friday (11) in conjunction with a request from teachers by an immediate temporary restriction order to prevent the Trump administration from cutting federal funding from Harvard University, according to the documents.

The university received a letter from a federal task force in early April outlined by nearly $ 9 billion political demands in federal funding, a spokesman confirmed to CNN . Among the demands described in the letter are the elimination of Harvard’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs and the ban on campus protests, they reported Harvard Crimson, Student Newspaper, and other vehicles.

The review is the latest effort of a federal task force to combat anti-Semitism in university campuses after a number of cases across the country in response to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

“This case involves an unprecedented threat of the Trump administration to retain almost nine billion dollars in federal funding from one of the main universities of our nation, unless it accepts changes that fundamentally compromise the university’s independence and the free expression rights of its teachers and students,” the process says.

The action also claims that the actions of the Trump administration violate the first amendment and title VI of the Civil Rights Law, which prohibits discrimination in federal assistance programs based on national race, color or origin, according to federal law.

The requirements in the management letter also include “total cooperation” with the internal security department, which applies immigration policy, and federal regulators to ensure “total compliance”, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Crimson.

The letter was received days after the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and the US General Services Management announce that they are reviewing $ 8.7 billion in subsidies and more than $ 255 million in contracts between Harvard, their affiliates and the federal government, according to a press release.

“Executive employees cannot coerce a private university to suppress academic and expression,” the process says, “leveraging the vast financial power of the federal government to effectively put a weapon in the head of a private institution.”

The process states that the cancellation of federal financing “is imminent”, citing how the Trump administration has already cut federal funding from other higher education institutions, such as Columbia University, which had cuts of US $ 400 million. Since then, Columbia has announced broad changes in his policies at the end of March, in an apparent concession to the Trump administration.

Teachers who filed the lawsuit said the federal government stated that integer programs and departments “should change their curricula and research agendas to change towards the government’s favorite point of view and ideology, and those in violation should be closed.”

The complaint against the Trump administration’s review says that their actions have already caused serious and irreparable damage to interrupting academic research and investigation at Harvard, including areas that have absolutely no relationship with accusations of anti -Semitism or other civil rights violations. ”

Days before the announcement of the review, almost 800 Harvard faculty members sent a letter to the Harvard corporation and the supervisory board asking the school to resist the demands of the Trump administration and publicly condemn its attacks on the country’s universities.

After Harvard received the notification of the review last week, President Alan Garber said that if the funding were revoked, this would “interrupt research that saves lives and endanger important scientific research and innovation.”

Andrew Manuel Crespo, professor of law at Harvard University and general counselor at the AAUP-Harvard College chapter, said in a statement that the first amendment “does not allow government officials to use the power of their position to silence critics and suppress speeches they don’t like.”

“Harvard teachers have the constitutional right to speak, teach and conduct research without fearing that the government retaliates against its views canceling subsidies,” said Crespo.

This content was originally published in Harvard teachers process Trump administration for threat of funds on CNN Brazil.

Source: CNN Brasil

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