Harvard University and the American Association of University Professors want a federal court to stop the government from canceling $2.5 billion in research funding.
At first glance, it’s easy to scoff. Harvard’s endowment rivals the GDP of some small countries. But this fight isn’t just about Harvard. It’s about all of us.
Harvard seems to think it’s entitled to its billions regardless of behavior, like a moody teenager who thinks rent is a form of oppression.
Sure, it’s satisfying to watch the crowned kings of academia scramble like undergrads who forgot their term paper was due. But a deeper question sits beneath the schadenfreude: Do universities have a constitutional right to taxpayer money?
Harvard seems to think so. Alongside the AAUP, the university now argues that the First Amendment guarantees not just academic freedom — but a government check to fund it. Far from a defense of liberty, that’s a tenured aristocracy demanding tribute.
How to ask for billions without blushing
Let’s unpack Harvard’s argument, delivered in the tone of someone explaining basic arithmetic to a particularly dim goat.
First, the school declares: “We have academic freedom! We have free speech! We can study whatever we want!” No argument here. Harvard’s academics are absolutely free to study whatever they like — whether it’s training lions to walk on treadmills or teaching Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly. (Yes, those are real grant-funded projects.) I’ll defend their right to pursue this nonsense on their own dime. But not with mine. And I’ll laugh at the absurdity while I do it.
Then comes the second move: “Our research helps society! Public health, military innovation, science, the arts — we deserve this funding because we’re helping you.” That’s when the argument starts to stink like a dorm fridge in May.
Here’s the reality: The Trump administration didn’t yank Harvard’s funding on a whim. The government pulled the plug because Harvard refused to address well-documented anti-Semitism on campus. Federal officials raised the alarm. Harvard responded with a shrug and a memo.
Now the university’s shocked — shocked! — that the spigot might be turned off.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Harvard is willing to pay up to $500 million to settle with the federal government — similar to Columbia’s deal. The final sticking point? Whether Harvard will agree to ongoing oversight for accountability, as Columbia did, or claim such monitoring violates its sacred “academic freedom.” That’s the scam again: invoking freedom while demanding taxpayer cash.
You don’t get to be elitist and entitled
Harvard runs on a $6 billion annual budget. Its endowment tops $50 billion. When ordinary people need money, they eat leftovers and cancel Netflix. Harvard, richer than many nations, sues the federal government to argue that taxpayers owe it funding for what it calls “scientific progress.”
That “progress” now includes climate grief workshops and studies on the emotional burdens of white women named Karen.
No one is saying universities can’t pursue intellectual flights of fancy. The question is whether they’re entitled to do it with your money — and without accountability.
At this point, “federally funded research” needs an asterisk. It used to mean real science. Now you have to squint: Is this about curing cancer or building better weapons — or is it just another DEI hustle dressed in a lab coat?
This is what happens when academia stops serving truth and starts serving itself.
Consequences for all!
Now, as any professor who has read a syllabus knows, consequences are real. They show up in bold print next to the plagiarism policy. And it turns out that federal grant contracts contain cancellation clauses — the equivalent of the government saying, “If you breach the terms or act unethically, we reserve the right to cut you off.”
Apparently, “repeated and unaddressed anti-Semitism” qualifies. As it should.
This is not oppression. This is not censorship. This is accountability — a word that causes visible hives in most faculty lounges.
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Photo by Bloomberg/Getty Images
Leftist academics are ready to refuse federal money to any Christian college that believes marriage is a union between a man and a woman. It would be defunded before you could say “diversity audit.” But Harvard seems to think it’s entitled to its billions regardless of behavior, like a moody teenager who thinks rent is a form of oppression.
Earn back our trust
As a professor who still believes that the university should be a place for the pursuit of wisdom and virtue (quaint, I know), I’ll be watching this case with great interest. If the court rules that Harvard is entitled to public money regardless of conduct, we’ll have affirmed the rise of a new aristocracy — one not of nobility by blood but of arrogance by credential.
But if the court affirms that funding comes with responsibility, that anti-Semitism cannot be tolerated, and that ideological corruption of science disqualifies one from public support, then it’s possible we’ve found the beginning of reform.
Until then, if Harvard wants to study whether male prostitutes in Vietnam are self-actualizing through tourism, the school can absolutely do that. Just not with my tax dollars. In fact, Harvard might be paying back $500 million. That’s a lot of zeroes.
