Harvard University is very rich. On that, most people agree.
Whether it’s rich enough to get through the next four years unscathed is less certain.
On Monday, the Ivy League school’s leaders took the bold step of publicly rejecting a sprawling list of demands from President Donald Trump’s administration. Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, rebuked the government’s ultimatum, which directed the university to overhaul its admissions, hiring and teaching practices – or risk losing billions in federal funding.
“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber wrote in a public statement. “No government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”
The consequences of Harvard’s defiance were swift.
With Washington, D.C.’s mayoral primary days away, President Donald Trump suggested that the federal government could...
