Harvard Cracks Down on Pro-Palestine Group After Funding Threat

(Bloomberg) — Harvard University took disciplinary action against a pro-Palestinian student group for violating campus rules a day after the Trump administration threatened to scrap as much as $9 billion in federal funding for the school over its handling of antisemitism. 

The university placed the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee on probation through June 30, saying it co-sponsored an April 1 rally with unrecognized student groups in which campus entrances were blocked and amplified sound was used. The disciplinary measure bars the organization, known as the PSC, from accessing campus resources. 

“Our commitment to creating a campus environment where free expression thrives requires that members of our community adhere to Harvard’s policies and rules, including those relating to time, place, and manner restrictions,” a university spokesman said in an email. 

Elite colleges have come under tremendous federal scrutiny for their handling of disruptive student protests following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and the Jewish state’s retaliatory response in Gaza. The Trump administration said earlier this week that it was reviewing $8.7 billion in grants and $255.6 million in contracts with Harvard, accusing the university of failing to protect students from antisemitism. 

The government has also targeted Princeton and Columbia, which has agreed to a list of administration demands to unlock $400 million in frozen funding, including taking a harder stance toward protesters who wear masks and break campus rules.

The protest this week in Harvard Yard drew about 300 people who assailed recent faculty shakeups and accused the university of complying with “fascism” under the Trump administration, according to a report in the Harvard Crimson, the school newspaper. 

The PSC was placed on probation in March 2024 and suspended the following month for violating protest guidelines, the Crimson reported. It was reinstated in September. 

The group disputed its role in sponsoring this week’s protest and said the university failed to provide a “substantiated basis” for the probation decision, according to the newspaper. 

“Their letter merely states that a rally happened and some unauthorized organizations co-sponsored it, but it says nothing about what role, if any, the PSC played,” the group said in a statement cited by the Crimson. 

Harvard said last month it would freeze faculty and staff hiring to preserve financial flexibility until leaders “better understand how changes in federal policy will take shape and can assess the scale of their impact.” The school is the richest in the US, with a $53 billion endowment, but it depends on federal money for scientific research.

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