Harvard Set to Lose All Federal Contracts

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00:00So, Brooke, this would be another $100 million worth that the Trump administration would be

00:04taking away. Is it doable? It would just compound the financial attacks that the

00:10Trump administration has already opened on Harvard. They have already frozen more than

00:15$2.6 billion of funding that primarily went to research. They have threatened Harvard's tax

00:22exempt status. They have moved to block the school from enrolling international students. So it's

00:28really a multi-pronged attack on Harvard's financial well-being. And in fact, more on

00:34that. Politico reporting just in the last hour or so that the U.S. is ordering a hold to student

00:38visa interviews, you know, purportedly pending a decision on whether or not it wants to vet

00:42social media. So the Trump administration clearly not too worried about Mark Zuckerberg or any of

00:47these people that are running these social media sites if that's the route it's going down to

00:51try and fight Harvard in the courts. But what is Harvard doing to defend itself just not

00:58just on the international student side of things but on these federal grounds? Is there anything

01:01you can do to fight this action?

01:04Sure. And just a point about, you know, the companies. Many companies look to that talent

01:09pool that comes out of Harvard and many other universities across the U.S. which do rely on

01:13international students to help, you know, develop that next generation of workers for the U.S.

01:21And so, you know, I think a number of companies have a vested interest in continuing to see

01:25international students come to the U.S. and learn here at these institutions. Now,

01:29in terms of what Harvard is doing, they have now filed two different lawsuits against the Trump

01:34administration. One challenging those funding freezes that we talked about, arguing that it is,

01:39you know, a situation of government overreach where the Trump administration is looking to assert

01:44more control over how Harvard manages its academic student campus disciplinary processes. And then the

01:51other suit involves the step to block international student enrollment. Now, it does have 53 billion

01:57dollars in assets. Can Harvard wait this out, assuming there's an end to this onslaught at some

02:03point? And is it getting support from other universities? Sure. I mean, I think that 53 billion

02:08dollar endowment, while it is important, is somewhat of a misnomer because it's not just this giant pile of

02:13money that Harvard has sitting around that it can draw from to plug these spending gaps. There are

02:19parameters on much of that money, some of it coming from the donors that provided the money in the

02:23first place that want to see those funds go to endow specific scholarships or support particular

02:29schools, whatever it might be. The money is also locked up in longer term investments. So, you know,

02:34Harvard can't just use it like an ATM. But it is, you know, Harvard is the richest U.S. university,

02:41which does give it more of a buffer to fight back against these actions. And I think that's part

02:45of the reason why you're seeing the school take this stand that, you know, if Harvard weren't to

02:50push back on some of these demands from the Trump administration, it would make it harder for

02:53to support smaller schools who are not as robustly funded to fight back.