Harvard University president Alan Garber has told faculty members that the school needs to rethink its communications strategy after president-elect Donald Trump’s victory, which the university leader said he saw as a strong rejection of elitism among American voters.
Garber views the Republican Party’s sweeping victory in November as the greatest threat that Harvard has seen in recent memory, the Harvard Crimson reported on Thursday. He made the remarks during a closed-door session of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, according to three anonymous faculty sources who attended the meeting.
The newly inaugurated university president has made at least six visits to Washington, D.C., where he met with about 40 members of Congress, according to the student-run newspaper. Federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle reportedly told him of their grievances with Harvard. Garber said Harvard should listen to criticisms with “empathy and humility.”
During the private faculty meeting, Garber said the university’s public messaging has not worked out well. This shift suggests that Harvard’s leaders are reevaluating their communications strategy, as they will likely face hostility from Trump’s second administration and a GOP-controlled Congress.
It remains unclear what changes Harvard will make. Without providing specific details about the meeting’s contents, a Harvard spokesperson said university officials will continue communicating with federal lawmakers.
“The University will continue to engage in Washington and with federal leaders to make the case for the partnership between the government and universities that supports students, vital research and innovation that fuel economic growth, as well as improvements in health and wellbeing,” the spokesperson told the Crimson.
In May, the Cambridge, Mass., university announced it would embrace institutional neutrality by no longer taking official stances on political or social issues that don’t relate to the higher-education institution.
After the new congressional session starts next month, Harvard could face legislative threats such as an endowment tax, congressional probes, and squeezing of federal research funding.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump threatened to “take away” the endowments of elite universities that have stifled free speech on campus. Harvard’s endowment already faces a 1.4 percent tax, but that could potentially be increased under Trump.
Notably, Senator JD Vance (R., Ohio) — now the vice president-elect — introduced a bill in 2023 that would have raised the 1.4 percent endowment tax to 35 percent. The bill failed, but a similar measure could return.
Harvard’s federal funding has been the subject of congressional probes as part of six House committees’ investigation into rampant antisemitism on U.S. campuses.
Harvard faced public backlash after its former president, Claudine Gay, failed to condemn antisemitism during congressional testimony last year. Gay resigned, handing the reins to Garber. He served in an interim role before his formal inauguration this month.
Trump’s pick for director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, is thinking of tying NIH grant funding to rankings of academic freedom at universities and medical schools, the Wall Street Journal recently reported.
Given that Harvard earned the lowest ranking for its free speech climate twice in the past two years, the Ivy League university could be defunded this way.
Trump could also deport any illegal immigrants who attend Harvard. The university does not make citizenship status a condition for the admissions process.
Asked by faculty members how he would respond to Trump’s immigration plans, Garber said he would support the Harvard community while complying with the law.