From the NY Times (Recapping events of 2025): The letter landed with a thud... in the inbox of Harvard University’s president, Alan M. Garber. The message, from Linda McMahon, President Trump’s education secretary, conveyed an understanding of an emerging deal between Harvard and the White House that flew in the face of the terms the university had been insisting on. Dr. Garber felt he had made clear in recent negotiations that the university would not agree to pay the federal government to settle a monthslong battle with the Trump administration over antisemitism on campus and other matters. But Ms. McMahon’s Saturday message said the opposite. In it, she thanked Dr. Garber for what she portrayed as his commitment to sending $200 million to the government as part of a deal.
Dr. Garber wrote back to clarify Harvard’s position. But, in response, the administration doubled down, introducing terms that were so far-reaching that university officials saw them as nonstarters. It was unclear whether Ms. McMahon’s interpretation of Harvard’s proposal resulted from a miscommunication or from a deliberate effort to force the university into a year-end deal after months of faltering negotiations. Whatever the case, it was the latest twist in the long-running dispute between Harvard and the Trump administration, which has shaped up to be the marquee battle in the administration’s effort to exert more influence over elite colleges and universities it views as too liberal.
The episode also underscored the emerging role played by people inside the administration who want to extract more concessions from Harvard. And it raised new questions about whether some of those voices were more interested in preserving the power of the government’s threat against Harvard as a message to other universities than in reaching a settlement with the nation’s wealthiest university...
The university has acknowledged that antisemitism had spread through parts of Harvard, affecting to some extent hiring, coursework and the culture of the campus in Cambridge, Mass. Dr. Garber, who is Jewish, has said he was “sorry for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community,” and has taken steps to combat antisemitism at Harvard. The Trump administration, though, has routinely depicted Harvard’s efforts as tardy and insufficient. And Mr. Trump has suggested that he is looking to punish Harvard for both perceived past misdeeds and its defiance this year...
Harvard officials, already anxious about the prospect of backlash to any settlement with a president many on campus see as autocratic, are sensitive to the details of any agreement. For months, they have viewed an accord between Brown University and the Trump administration as a model. Under that agreement, Brown agreed to spend $50 million on state work force development programs over a decade. The university did not have to enter into a rigorous monitoring agreement, and it secured a provision that Brown leaders viewed as safeguarding academic independence.
Trump administration officials had initially signaled that Harvard could secure some terms similar to those offered to Brown. But administration officials now contend that Harvard’s troubles in recent years were far graver than Brown’s. Some also point to Harvard’s colossal endowment as a reason that it should pay more. Harvard has made clear that it is willing to spend more than Brown, but the university’s opposition to treating any portion of that payment as a fine is grounded in its belief that its failures fell short of violations of federal law and are no worse than any other school’s. Some at the university believe that agreeing to a fine would be tantamount to a bribe or an admission of guilt and that it would be depicted that way by detractors — even if a settlement were to explicitly say the university did not acknowledge wrongdoing...
Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/us/trump-harvard-letters-deal.html.
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