Published at Open the Books Substack

The Trump administration is taking a hard look at one of its top contractors: Harvard University. In response to the university’s increasing left-wing radicalism and racial discrimination in admissions and hiring decisions, the president sent a list of demands to Harvard to continue receiving federal funds. Those demands include ending divisive diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, adopting merit-based admissions and hiring, and reporting international students who violated conduct policies to federal authorities.

 

Harvard has refused to comply and has since had $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contracts frozen. President Trump also stated that he is considering stripping the university’s non-profit tax-exempt status “if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘sickness.’”

 

These actions demand a closer look at how much Harvard stands to lose if it walks away from its federal funding or loses a monumental court battle with the current administration.

New analyses from Open the Books show that since the first Trump administration in 2017, Harvard has received $4.4 billion in federal funding through grants, contracts, sub-grants, and sub-contracts. That’s about $539 million a year. Most funding ($3.6 billion) came from grants.

 

In any given year, Harvard collected more in federal grants and contracts than they stood to gain through tuition, room & board. (This does not consider financial aid, loans, etc., but is self-reported tuition charges from Harvard). 

 

Meanwhile, even more astonishing: Harvard’s endowment has grown by $14 BILLION since 2018 (for a total of $53.2B) — that means they’re sitting on more than $7 million for every undergraduate student as they collect billions in grants and contracts.

 

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