Judge temporarily halts Trump block on foreign students at Harvard

President Donald Trump is furious at Harvard — which has
produced 162 Nobel prize winners — for rejecting his demand that it submit to
oversight on admissions and hiring over his claims that it is a hotbed of
anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology.

His administration has already threatened to put $9 billion
of government funding to Harvard under review, gone on to freeze a first
tranche of $2.2 billion of grants and $60 million of official contracts, as
well as targeting a Harvard Medical School researcher for deportation.

“It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation
for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s
demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its
faculty and students,” said the lawsuit filed in Massachusetts federal court.

The lawsuit called for a judge to “stop the government’s
arbitrary, capricious, unlawful, and unconstitutional action.”

The loss of foreign nationals — more than a quarter of its
student body — could prove costly to Harvard, which charges tens of thousands
of dollars a year in tuition.

– ‘Unlawful and
unwarranted’ –

Harvard President Alan Garber said in a statement Friday
ahead of the temporary restraining order that “we condemn this unlawful and
unwarranted action.

“It imperils the futures of thousands of students and
scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges
and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue
their education and fulfill their dreams,” he said.

Noem had said Thursday that “this administration is holding
Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with
the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.”

Chinese students make up more than a fifth of Harvard’s
international enrollment, according to university figures, and Beijing said the
decision will “only harm the image and international standing of the United
States.”

“The Chinese side has consistently opposed the
politicization of educational cooperation,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao
Ning said.

Harvard has already sued the US government over a separate
raft of punitive measures.

Karl Molden, a student at Harvard from Austria, said he had
applied to transfer to Oxford in Britain because he feared such measures.

“It’s scary and it’s saddening,” the 21-year-old government
and classics student told AFP Thursday, calling his admission to Harvard the
“greatest privilege” of his life.

Leaders of the Harvard chapter of the American Association
of University Professors called the decision “the latest in a string of nakedly
authoritarian and retaliatory moves against America’s oldest institution of
higher education.”

AFP