CV NEWS FEED // Harvard announced a temporary hiring freeze Monday, citing “substantial financial uncertainties driven by rapidly shifting federal policies” amid growing scrutiny from the Trump administration.
The freeze comes just three days after the Trump administration withdrew $400 million in grants and contracts from Columbia University, citing the school’s failure to protect Jewish students from antisemitism following the Oct. 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Columbia’s total endowment stands at $14.8 billion.
Harvard President Dr. Alan M. Garber told the school community in an email that the hiring freeze is effective immediately and will remain in place for the current semester.
“We need to prepare for a wide range of financial circumstances, and strategic adjustments will take time to identify and implement,” the email stated. “Consequently, it is imperative to limit significant new long-term commitments that would increase our financial exposure and make further adjustments more disruptive.”
Harvard is the richest university in the US with an endowment that surged to $53.2 billion in fiscal year 2024.
Harvard, like Columbia, is facing scrutiny from the Trump administration over its handling of pro-Palestine protests and encampments on campus last year.
The Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance (HJAA), an organization dedicated to protecting the safety of Jewish students on campus, released a report accusing the university of mismanaging its response to the protests. The report claimed that “Harvard’s education systemically planted and spread the seeds of hatred for Israel and Jews well before October 7th, 2023.”
Two weeks ago, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism would visit and investigate 10 universities, including Harvard, that have experienced antisemitic incidents.
The task force was established by President Donald Trump through a January executive order aimed at protecting the civil rights of Jewish citizens. According to a White House fact sheet, “pro-Hamas aliens and left-wing radicals” have “physically blocked Jewish Americans from attending college classes, obstructed synagogues and assaulted worshippers, and vandalized American monuments and statues.”
Fox News reported Monday that “the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) said the Biden administration ‘accumulated a backlog of complaints’ across universities after the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel,” which the Trump administration is now addressing as an immediate priority.
Several other universities, including Stanford and Cornell, have implemented hiring freezes in recent weeks following the DOJ’s announcement. Pennsylvania State became the latest to follow suit, enacting financial measures just hours after Harvard’s decision.