Cambridge City Council calls on Harvard to stand up to Trump (2025)

Local News

If Harvard doesn't comply with Trump's demands, $9 billion in federal funding is at risk. So is academic freedom, the Cambridge City Council says.

By Molly Farrar

April 8, 2025

2 minutes to read

Cambridge City Council is urging Harvard University’s leaders to not give in to the Trump administration’s recent demands, which could put billions of Harvard’s federal funding at risk.

Trump’s demands, sent in a letter last week, include dismantling DEI programs, “oversight and accountability for biased programs and field antisemitism,” and other “reforms.” While the letter doesn’t include a timeline, the administration said it expects “immediate cooperation.” The administration is threatening $9 billion of federal grants and contracts committed to Harvard and its affiliates if the school doesn’t comply.

Harvard is planning to borrow $750 million in bonds amid the scrutiny from the federal government.

During their regular Monday night meeting, the Cambridge City Council unanimously approved a late agenda item asking “Harvard Corporation to stand up in defense of the values that are fundamental to both the University and our democracy.” The Harvard Corporation is Harvard’s highest governing body.

“I wouldn’t presume to say we should be telling Harvard what to do,” Councilor Patricia Nolan said, but “depending on their response, it could deeply affect the city.”

Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang, who attended Harvard, told councilors that “how the university navigates these treacherous times is, as the policy order captures, going to deeply affect our community.”

“Harvard is our community, and I also care because Harvard needs to be the leader that I know it can be: an example that inspires solidarity in a united front against these unlawful actions,” Huang said.

The policy order pointed out that even though Columbia University complied with Trump’s rules by putting its Middle East studies department under new supervision and overhauling its rules for protests, their funding is now in limbo.

Instead, the council pointed to Princeton University, whose funding is on hold. Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber has called Trump’s demands “a threat to academic freedom.”

“It is not hyperbole to draw a parallel between the current administration’s demands and the appeasement policies of the 1930s, when several European nations conceded to the demands of Hitler, contributing to the horrific rise of the Nazi regime and World War II,” the Cambridge City Council’s policy order read.

Huang said it’s important for the council to go “on record” about the issue and noted that the city could be a “space” for faculty and alumni who are speaking up in defense of the university and “academic freedom.”

“Coming out with the university and saying there is a voice of truth and integrity that needs to come out, so I think that’s a possible path for us,” Huang said.

The policy order passed with an amendment to send the request not just to the Harvard Corporation but also to the governor, federal delegation, and the state delegation.

Harvard University did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday evening.