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Harvard Explores $500 Million Settlement to Unlock $2 Billion in Federal Funding

Harvard is weighing a $500 million settlement to restore over $2 billion in research funding under terms modeled on recent Ivy League agreements.

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U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon speaks during the summer meeting of the National Governors Association at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
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A view of the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., April 15, 2025. REUTERS/Faith Ninivaggi/File Photo

Overview

  • President Trump’s administration froze Harvard’s access to more than $2 billion in federal grants and threatened to bar its international students over alleged antisemitism and DEI violations.
  • On July 23, Columbia agreed to pay $221 million to lift a $400 million funding freeze, setting a blueprint that includes policy concessions and an independent monitor.
  • Brown reached a $50 million deal on July 30, pledging payments to local workforce organizations without fines to the federal government and securing the reinstatement of $510 million and the closure of investigations.
  • Harvard negotiators remain hesitant to make a direct payment to the Treasury and view any requirement for an outside monitor as a potential infringement on academic autonomy.
  • A settlement with Harvard could conclude its April lawsuit and require campus policy changes on antisemitism, nondiscrimination, gender definitions and admissions data access under White House terms.