Harvard ban is warning to other universities, Noem says
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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Capitol Hill on May 20. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warned universities on Thursday to "get your act together" after halting Harvard's program to enroll international students.
The big picture: The Trump administration has targeted educational institutions, pressuring universities to meet its demands or risk losing funding and tax-exempt status.
State of play: In the latest escalation, Noem on Thursday ordered the Department of Homeland Security to terminate Harvard's ability to enroll international students, and said those currently enrolled have to transfer or lose their legal status.
- She accused the university of "fostering violence, antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus."
- Harvard called the move unlawful and said it's "fully committed to maintaining Harvard's ability to host international students and scholars."
What she's saying: "This should be a warning to every other university to get your act together," Noem said on Fox News on Thursday.
- "Get your act together because we are coming to make sure that these programs ... are facilitating an environment where students can learn, where they're safe and that they're not discriminated against based on their race or their religion," she continued.
- "Anti-semitism will not be stood for and any participation with a country or an entity or a terrorist group that hates America and perpetuates this kind of violence, we will stop it, and we will not allow that to happen."
Zoom out: The administration's recent demands of Harvard and other elite institutions depict the government's playbook to influence and reorient the priorities of universities through federal funds.
- The administration's stated objective is weeding out antisemitism, but it's also pushing President Trump's vision of eliminating perceived liberal slants, sharpening discipline measures and reconstructing the makeup of student and faculty bodies.
Case in point: Harvard last month became the first university to reject the administration's demands tied to its federal funding. It was met with $2 billion in grants being frozen and the IRS taking steps to revoke the university's tax-exempt status.
- Columbia, meanwhile, regained $400 million in federal grants and contracts the administration had pulled after the university agreed to meet some demands.
- Funding for Cornell, Northwestern, Brown and Princeton has also been facing potential cuts.
- In the face of threats to higher education institutions, faculty members at several Big Ten universities asked their administrations to consider a joint defense pact.
Between the lines: "This is a blueprint for fealty to the administration," Tyler Coward, lead counsel for government affairs at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told Axios in an email Thursday.
- "Institutions must stand up for their rights now, or risk never getting them back again," he added.
Go deeper: Trump admin nixes Harvard's ability to enroll international students
