US terminates $78 million in Harvard grants over alleged anti-Semitism

WASHINGTON – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on May 19 that it was terminating US$60 million (S$77.7 million) in federal grants to Harvard University because the Ivy League institution failed to address anti-Semitic harassment and ethnic discrimination on campus.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has frozen or ended federal grants and contracts for the university worth nearly US$3 billion in recent weeks.

Since taking office in January, the Republican President has sought to use federal research funding to overhaul US academia, which he says has been gripped by anti-American, Marxist and “radical left” ideologies.

The administration has accused Harvard of continuing to consider ethnicity when reviewing student applications and of allowing discrimination against Jews as a result of the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled American campuses in 2024.

New York’s Columbia University has also been

targeted over alleged anti-Semitism

.

“Due to Harvard University’s continued failure to address anti-Semitic harassment and race discrimination, HHS is terminating multiple multi-year grant awards... over their full duration,” the Health Department said in a post on X on Monday.

Harvard University did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based institution has previously said it “cannot absorb the entire cost” of the frozen grants and that it was working with researchers to help them find alternative funding. It is also

suing the Trump administration

over its decision to cut grants.

Earlier in May, the university

settled a high-profile lawsuit

by an Orthodox Jewish student who said Harvard was ignoring anti-Semitism on campus.

The settlement came four months after Harvard promised additional protection for Jewish students, as it resolved two lawsuits claiming it was a hotbed of anti-Semitism. REUTERS