Harvard University implements hiring freeze amid ‘financial uncertainties’ after feds stripped $400 million from Columbia University
BOSTON — Harvard University has announced that it’s implementing a hiring freeze due to “substantial financial uncertainties” after the feds stripped $400 million from Columbia University.
The Cambridge school cited the “rapidly shifting federal policies” from the Trump administration and said that the hiring pause is temporary to understand how the federal policy changes will impact the university’s funding moving forward.
“Effective immediately, Harvard will implement a temporary pause on staff and faculty hiring across the University,” school officials wrote in a letter to colleagues on Monday.
“Universities throughout the nation face substantial financial uncertainties driven by rapidly shifting federal policies,” they wrote, later adding, “We need to prepare for a wide range of financial circumstances, and strategic adjustments will take time to identify and implement. Consequently, it is imperative to limit significant new long-term commitments that would increase our financial exposure and make further adjustments more disruptive.”
Harvard plans to leave the hiring freeze in effect for the spring semester, but school officials said they will revisit that decision as circumstances warrant.
“We are also asking the leadership of Schools and administrative units to scrutinize discretionary and non-salary spending, reassess the scope and timing of capital renewal projects, and conduct a rigorous review of any new multi-year commitments,” the officials wrote.
The hiring freeze at Harvard comes in the wake of the feds last week cancelling $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University due to the school’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students,” the federal agencies said in a statement.
These cancellations represented the first round of action from the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, and additional cancellations are expected to come in the near future.
On March 3, the Task Force notified the acting president of Columbia University that it would conduct a comprehensive review of the university’s federal contracts and grants in light of ongoing investigations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The feds reported that antisemitic harassment continued on campus in the days after that warning.
“Since October 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment on their campuses – only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Universities must comply with all federal anti-discrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding.
“For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus,” McMahon added. “Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”
President Donald Trump has said that any college or university that allows “illegal protests” and repeatedly fails to protect students from antisemitic harassment on campus will be subject to the loss of federal funding.
“Freezing the funds is one of the tools we are using to respond to this spike in anti-Semitism. This is only the beginning,” said Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and head of the DOJ Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. “Canceling these taxpayer funds is our strongest signal yet that the Federal Government is not going to be party to an educational institution like Columbia that does not protect Jewish students and staff.”