What is happening between Ivy League Schools and Trump?

By: Rene Chang [September 3, 2025]

Issues at Harvard:

RESTRICTING FOREIGN STUDENT VISAS AT HARVARD: On June 5, President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation to safeguard national security by suspending the entry of foreign nationals seeking to study or participate in exchange programs at Harvard University. Regarding “national security” concerns, the Trump Administration declared that continuing to admit foreign students to the university would be “detrimental” to US interests. In response, Harvard filed court documents within hours, requesting that a judge prevent the “retaliatory” order from going into effect. Harvard University then amended an existing lawsuit against the government, arguing the move violates the university’s First Amendment rights. University President Alan Garber stated that contingency plans were being developed for the nearly 7,000 international students, who make up 27% of the student population.

The proclamation requested the Secretary of State to reconsider revoking the visas of current students who fit specific requirements, and it immediately prohibited the admission of new students on F, M, and J visas.

Citing national security concerns, the proclamation charged Harvard with failing to provide information requested by federal agencies regarding the activities of foreign students. Additionally, the White House asserted that Harvard had “concerning foreign ties and radicalism,” specifically highlighting its ties to China. This action followed a federal judge’s temporary block of the Department of Homeland Security’s previous attempt to revoke Harvard’s certification to enroll international students.

Harvard has also grown deeply involved with foreign entities, with China alone providing it with over $150 million. Harvard has reciprocated by, among other things, hosting paramilitary members of the Chinese Communist Party and collaborating with Chinese individuals on research projects that could help China modernize its military.

Harvard University is regarded as the leading “party school” abroad, and the Chinese Communist Party has sent thousands of mid-career and senior bureaucrats to study at American universities. In the early 2010s, Xi Jinping’s own daughter was an undergraduate at Harvard.

According to White House,

President Trump: “We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools, but they can’t get in because we have foreign students there. But I want to make sure that the foreign students are people who can love our country.”

President Trump: “We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country. Harvard is very slow in the presentation of these documents, and probably for good reason!”

This action is the latest development in a legal battle between Harvard and the Trump administration, which has previously frozen federal funding and revoked the university’s certification to enroll foreign students, accusing universities of failing to tackle antisemitism amid protests against the war in Gaza across campuses.

According to the BBC, on September 3rd, a US federal court overturned billions in funding cuts by President Donald Trump’s administration to Harvard University.

Judge Allison Burroughs ruled the government violated the Ivy League college’s free speech rights when it revoked around $2bn (£1.5bn) in research grants.

The ruling is a major legal victory for Harvard, but the White House has vowed to appeal. When it froze funding in April, the Trump administration accused the college of antisemitism, “radical left” ideologies, and racial bias.

She prevented the government from withholding payment on existing grants and prevented the administration from halting any additional federal funding to the college located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The White House declared that it would contest the “egregious decision” right away and referred to the judge as an “activist” who was appointed by former President Barack Obama and would never make a decision that favored them.

Columbia’s response:

According to the BBC, Columbia was the first school targeted by the administration for its alleged failures to curb antisemitism amid last year’s Israel-Gaza war protests on its New York City campus. It had already agreed to a set of demands from the White House in March.

Due to Columbia’s “failure to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment,” the administration withdrew $400 million in federal grants and contracts with the university in March 2025. A graduate student, Mahmoud Khalid, was arrested by the Department of Homeland Security, which also started to take action against pro-Palestinian student protesters.

Former Columbia University graduate student and activist Mahmoud Khalid has spoken out about his arrest and the larger dispute between the Trump administration and pro-Palestinian activists. He referred to himself as a “political prisoner,” claiming that he was being singled out for his political activism and convictions after being arrested by federal immigration officials. Khalil claimed in a statement that his arrest was a direct result of using his right to free speech to call for a “free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.” He also criticized Columbia University, saying that by punishing pro-Palestinian students and letting “doxing campaigns” continue unchecked, its administrators “laid the groundwork for the US government to target me.”

The Trump administration responds to Khalil for his constitutionally protected speech, according to his legal team. The administration has claimed that Khalil participated in “activities aligned to Hamas,” but it has not provided any proof.

Then, on July 24, 2025, Columbia University and the administration signed a groundbreaking $221 million settlement agreement to restore access to the university’s federal grants. The idea that Columbia was surrendering to government intimidation infuriated Acting President Claire Shipman, who acknowledged the pressure they were under due to the significant financial loss.

“I actually think that the narrative that paints this as a kind of binary situation – courage versus capitulation – is just wrong. It’s too simplistic,” Shipman told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on July 24. “This was a really, really complex problem.”

“We could have faced the loss of any future relationship in the coming years with the federal government,” added Shipman, “and that would have effectively meant an end to the research mission we conduct as we know it.”

Brown’s Reply:

President Donald J. Trump declared a “historic settlement” with Brown University on July 30, 2025, with the goal of reestablishing “fairness, merit, and safety in higher education.” The deal covers a number of important topics and was reached after the Trump administration stopped providing federal funding to Brown.

According to CNN, in a letter to the university community, Paxson stated that Brown is not paying “any payments or fines to the federal government.”

This differs from Columbia’s agreement, which calls for the university to pay $200 million to the US Treasury over three years and an additional $21 million to resolve investigations by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A White House fact sheet states that the settlement guarantees Brown won’t participate in “unlawful racial discrimination in admissions or university programming” and will give the government information to guarantee “merit-based admissions.”

A three-year monitoring period is provided in the agreement to ensure compliance. According to Christina Paxson, president of Brown University, the institution decided to engage in negotiations to safeguard its academic independence and core mission. As part of the settlement, the university denied any misconduct.

Financially, Brown committed to donating $50 million over ten years to Rhode Island workforce development groups that comply with anti-discrimination legislation. The deal ends ongoing federal investigations into Brown and restores all of the university’s Health and Human Services grants.

The settlement also mandates that Brown’s policies comply with Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” issued by President Trump.

Furthermore, according to the White House official, Brown has committed to “not engage in unlawful racial discrimination in admissions or university programming” as part of the agreement, and he will give the federal government access to pertinent information on the subject. Additionally, the school is anticipated to embrace the definitions of “male” and “female” found in an executive order signed earlier this year by President Donald Trump regarding “women’s sports, programming, facilities, and housing.” According to the official, the school “will take steps to improve the campus climate for Jewish students” and its medical facilities “will not perform gender reassignment surgeries on minors or prescribe them puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.”

Overall, the administration has employed financial pressure and legal threats to force these Ivy Leagues to enforce admissions, campus protest, and gender identity policies that support its goals. Harvard has so far resisted through the courts, paving the way for an extended legal dispute over the autonomy of American higher education, while other institutions, such as Columbia and Brown, have reached settlements involving significant financial and policy concessions.

Bibliography: