Harvard’s former president criticizes its approach to Trump

Harvard’s former president, Professor Claudine Gay, offered a blunt assessment of the university’s current administration in September, criticising it for

complying with demands from the Trump White House

.

Her remarks, which were given at a conference at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Amsterdam, were striking in that they appeared to criticise her own successor, Dr Alan Garber.

Dr Garber served as provost before becoming president. He took over

Harvard’s leadership after Prof Gay resigned in January 2024,

under pressure over accusations that she had not been forceful enough in condemning antisemitism on campus and that she had plagiarised in her academic writing. Prof Gay said then that she had unintentionally used duplicative language.

“The posture of the institution seems to be one of compliance,” Prof Gay said in an address on Sept 3, first reported on Sept 19 in The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper. “This is distressing, not only for those of us who are on campus and facing the consequences directly, but also for all of those in higher ed who look to Harvard for leadership and guidance.”

She implicitly faulted Dr Garber for being willing to negotiate a US$500 million (S$642 million) settlement with the White House.

“The number of US$500 million is arbitrary, and it will solve nothing,” Prof Gay said. “There is no justification.”

Prof Gay’s remarks, which were made during a question-and-answer session, were confirmed by a spokesperson for the Netherlands Institute. Neither Prof Gay nor Harvard immediately responded to a request for comment.

Dr Garber has been widely hailed for deciding to fight back against the Trump administration’s demands and for filing a lawsuit that accused the government of violating Harvard’s free speech rights. However, Harvard has also been negotiating with federal officials behind the scenes, in an effort to restore billions of dollars in frozen federal research funds.

At the same time, Harvard has already made changes that align with the Trump administration’s agenda, angering some on campus who say it is capitulating to the federal government. For example, it has taken actions to eliminate diversity offices, including the symbolic step of changing the name of its Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging to the Office for Community and Campus Life.

The White House has also pushed for institutions to end any policies that might suggest that they are giving racial preferences to some students and to stop accommodating transgender identities. Harvard has taken down websites for its Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, as well as for offices for gay and female students. Harvard said it was merging the offices into a single centre.

Harvard also shook up the leadership of a Middle Eastern studies centre and suspended its relationship with a Palestinian college in the West Bank.

On Sept 19, the Trump administration put new pressure on Harvard, demanding documentation of its financial stability and a guarantee that federal debts would be paid if the school “closes or terminates classes.” Harvard has a US$53 billion endowment and is the wealthiest college in the world.

But Harvard also announced that the government had disbursed US$46 million in research funding from the US Department of Health and Human Services, two weeks after a federal judge found that the broader funding freeze was illegal. “This is an initial step, and we hope to continue to see funding restored across all of the federal agencies,” a statement from Harvard said. NYTIMES