Harvard Mulls $500 Million Spending Plan to Resolve Dispute With Trump Administration

Harvard University has showed signs of agreeing to Trump administration's demand of spending nearly $500 million to end its dispute with the White House as negotiations between the two sides intensify, four people aware of the matter said.

According to one of the people, quoted by Economic Times, Harvard is unwilling to pay the federal government directly. However, the negotiators are still discussing the exact financial terms.

Recently, the government had accused Harvard of civil rights violations and had fined them with a sum, which was more than twice as much as the $200 million fine that Columbia University claimed it would pay when it settled antisemitism claims with the White House last week. As of now, neither Harvard nor the government have publicly shared any details of potential terms for a settlement and what allegations the money would be intended to resolve.

Last month, the Trump administration claimed that Harvard University violated federal civil rights law in its handling of Jewish and Israeli students and threatened the school of potentially losing all federal financial resources as a result.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the people privy to the confidential negotiations said that Trump has privately demanded that Harvard pay far more than Columbia.

Despite making steady progress toward a deal, Harvard is skeptical of Columbia's agreement to allow an outside monitor to oversee its arrangement with the government. As per signals made by officials at Harvard, such a requirement for their own settlement could be viewed as a redline for potential infringement on the university's academic freedom.

University officials concluded months ago that even if they prevailed in their court fight against the government, a deal can help Harvard avoid more troubles over the course of Trump's term.
The timing for reaching that agreement is still unclear in front of the administration.

In June, Trump said that his administration might strike an agreement with Harvard "over the next week or so." Even though that time frame has crossed, the President has privately informed his aides that he will not green-light a deal unless the university agrees to spend many millions of dollars, as per a report by ET.

As of press time, there has been no comment from Harvard on the matter.