Trump froze two billion dollars of Harvard funds after the university rejected its demands

The Harvard Declaration today reinforces the disturbing rights mentality that isalistic at our country's most prestigious universities and colleges”, the Education Department said in a statement.

The White House sent a list of requests to Harvard last week that said they were designed to fight anti-Semitism in campus. These included changes in its governance, employment practices and accession procedures.

Harvard rejected the demands Monday and said the White House was trying to “control its” community.

It is the first major American university to challenge pressure from the Trump administration to change its policies. The sweeping changes demanded by the White House would have transformed its operations and would have given a major government check.

President Trump has accused the main universities of failing to protect Jewish students when college campuses across the country were shaken by anti-war protests in Gaza and US support for Israel last year.

In a letter to the Harvard community on Monday, its president, Alan Garber, said the White House had sent an up-to-date and expanded <x0 users of requests “on Friday, along with a warning that the university “should be reconciled” in order to preserve its “financial relations with the government.

“We have announced the administration through our legal attorney that we will not accept the proposed agreement by them”, he wrote. “University will not give up its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights”.

Garber added that the university did not take “lightly” its obligation to fight anti-Semitism, but said the government was excessive.

Although some of the demands outlined by the government are intended to fight antisemitism, most represent the direct government regulation of intellectual constitutions at Harvard”, he said.