Harvard University is temporarily pausing hiring as the Trump administration scrutinizes federal funds for colleges and universities, and cracks down on antisemitism at major schools.
Harvard is enacting the freeze because of “substantial financial uncertainties” caused by the Trump administration’s new policies, school president Alan Garber, provost John Manning, executive vice president Meredith Weenick and chief financial officer Ritu Kalra wrote in a message to faculty and staff.
“First, the hiring pause is temporary. It is meant to preserve our financial flexibility until we better understand how changes in federal policy will take shape and can assess the scale of their impact. We plan to leave the pause in effect for the current semester but will revisit that decision as circumstances warrant,” the message reads.
“Second, this temporary pause does not supplant broader efforts already under way across our campus to identify structural savings and capacity. Third, while we continue to plan for multiple scenarios in both the short and long term, rest assured that Harvard is working hard to advocate for higher education in our nation’s capital and beyond.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January ending left-wing diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the federal government and federally-funded institutions, putting colleges and universities on notice. The Department of Education is providing schools with guidance for how they can comply with Trump’s executive action and other federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race and other characteristics.
Like many institutions of higher education, Harvard has an office devoted to DEI and numerous administrative employees paid to implement DEI on campus.
Harvard was one of many high profile universities to have an anti-Israel encampment on campus last year, as the school’s environment became hostile to Jewish students following Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023 and Israel’s subsequent multi-front war in the Middle East. College campuses experienced a surge in antisemitism last year driven by left-wing student activists and outside agitators opposed to Israel’s war effort.
The Trump administration’s multi-agency task force on antisemitism plans on visiting Harvard and speaking with leadership about allegations that it failed to protect Jewish students and faculty from discrimination, the panel announced at the end of February. Harvard recently settled two civil rights lawsuits from Jewish students over the campus environment and agreed to increase protections for Jewish and Israeli students moving forward.
The task force on antisemitism pulled $400 million in federal grants and contracts from Columbia University last week over its failure to combat the explosion of anti-Israel and antisemitic activity on campus since October 7, 2023.
Last month, Garber, who is Jewish said Harvard should condemn antisemitic speech in accordance with university policy.
“I do believe that we need to continue to condemn the use of speech that is widely viewed as antisemitic or as hate speech in other forms, even if not everybody agrees,” Garber told the Harvard Crimson.
Garber took over Harvard’s presidency after disgraced former president Claudine Gay resigned last year over demonstrated instances of plagiarism throughout her academic career and her disastrous congressional testimony on campus antisemitism.