US student protesters call for end to Trump pressure on universities

Demonstrations occurred at more than 60 university campuses across the United States on Thursday as students and faculty members denounced recent moves by the Trump administration to base federal funding of higher education upon complying with what they called a political agenda.

At Harvard University, dozens of protesters assembled at the steps of Widener Library to speak against President Donald Trump's freeze of $2.2 billion in federal endowment funds that had been awarded to Harvard programs, due to the Ivy League school's refusal to agree to Trump's requirements, which include limits on campus activism, the expulsion of some international students, and an end to DEI admissions and hiring programs.

Rochelle Sun, a Harvard graduate student in education, told The Associated Press that she joined the protest in support of international students.

"The whole point of me having this education here and for pursuing research is to be among the best scholars that exist in the world," she said. "And if they're not going to be around me, then I'm not going to be able to achieve my goals of being here, either."

The protest occurred amid a growing feud between the university and Trump, with Harvard President Alan Garber and professors citing the US president's orders as a threat to academic freedom in America.

On Monday, Garber wrote in a letter to "members of the Harvard Community" that the school "will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights" by complying with the terms set by Trump.

Later that day, the White House Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced it would suspend $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contracts to Harvard.

In an apparent reference to the Gaza protests which roiled Harvard and other schools in 2023 and 2024, the task force stated the "harassment of Jewish students is intolerable. It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously … if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support."

At the University of California-Berkeley, about 450 protesters gathered to urge university rejection of Trump's terms for federal funding and campus immigration crackdowns.

On March 23, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said on CNN's State of the Union that Columbia University's shift toward compliance had put the school "on the right track" toward recovering US government funds totaling $400 million.

On March 28, Katrina Armstrong resigned as interim president, amid campus criticism over her compliance with the Trump administration.

On Thursday, about 150 protesters assembled in a Columbia campus plaza outside a federal office building in a demonstration organized by a coalition that includes the American Federation of Teachers.

Columbia's new interim president, Claire Shipman, upon reading Garber's open letter, said the school would persist with "good faith discussions" with the Trump team, but "would reject any agreement in which the government dictates what we teach, research or who we hire".

Also on Thursday, Trump called Harvard University "a disgrace" and told reporters that lawyers were handling the matter of putting an end to Harvard's tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service, suggesting that other universities also were under consideration for punitive IRS action.

He added: "When you take a look whether it's Columbia, Harvard , Princeton, I don't know what's going on, when you see how badly they've acted and in other ways also. So we'll be looking at it very strongly."

Trump posted on social media Tuesday that he was considering whether to pursue ending Harvard's tax-exempt status because of the institution's "political, ideological and terrorist supporting 'Sickness?'"