In her Monday blog post, Heather Cox Richardson, an American historian and Boston College professor wrote, “The Trump administration announced on April 11 that it would withhold from Harvard University $2.2 billion in grants already awarded and a $60 million contract unless Harvard permitted the federal government to control the university’s admissions and intellectual content.”
“Today, Harvard sued the government for violating the First Amendment and overstepping its legal authority under the guise of addressing antisemitism,” she continued.
“The complaint notes the ‘arbitrary and capricious nature’ of the government’s demands, and says, ‘The government has not—and cannot—identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen that aims to save American lives, foster American success, preserve American security, and maintain America’s position as a global leader in innovation.’”
That seems very similar to the seemingly capricious withdrawal of BRIC funding the Town of Hardwick had applied for, as we reported on last week. In writing that story we omitted the headline of the FEMA press release that called the program a “Wasteful, Politicized Grant Program.”
This week we learned a March 28 letter from the U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon notified state education leaders that funding has been withdrawn for educational programs under an ARP ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) program that was extended by the Biden administration. That funding “covered expenses such as literacy professional development for educators, HVAC controls maintenance in school buildings, and summer enrichment programming.” said Orleans Southwest Supervisory Union Superintendent David Baker.
Local schools intend to apply for reconsideration of those grants, but, in the meantime Baker said, “we put a pause on the literacy and math professional development. Summer enrichment programming is on hold.” Good news is that, “We did get a full title allocation for next year in this budget bill. So I think we’re going to be okay for fy26. We don’t fund a lot of positions through federal grants,” said Baker
While it’s normal for priorities to change as federal administrations change, especially if they are from different political parties, it’s incredibly unusual for a new administration to step into the purview of Congress by withdrawing previously allocated funds. It’s hard to see how it can help anything specific.
Vermont’s Attorney General Charity Clark has filed several lawsuits against the federal government on behalf of state agencies from which funding has been withdrawn.
Earlier this month we learned from a Wall Street Journal analysis of daily Treasury Department financial statements that government spending since the inauguration in January was $154 billion more than in the same period in 2024 during the Biden administration. Elon Musk says DOGE has saved $140 billion. The conservative American Enterprise Institute said on April 9, the “savings are much closer to about $10 billion.”
Either way, the savings aren’t going to make up for that excess spending.
Which is all to say, Federal cuts are being directed to many places and lawsuits are being filed to correct what are seen as wrongs. That, in addition to almost weekly protests, at least at the Vermont Statehouse in Montpelier seems like ants attacking an anteater because the anteater has all the power.
The administration picking on Harvard seems a fool’s errand, akin to going all in during a poker game with a pair of twos. If I had to bet on fighting a legal battle with Harvard University, the richest post-secondary school on the planet, and home of a prestigious law school, I’d bet on Harvard.
There’s a lot on the line as the government’s tactics of intimidation of Harvard and other high profile universities may likely cause other, smaller institutions to fall in line, regardless of how unreasonable the requests may seem.
I’m not willing to call what I see a Constitutional crisis until the administration defies a Supreme Court finding of contempt.
Until then, I put my money on Harvard and suggest we all stand with them.
Paul Fixx, editor
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
The government’s letter to Harvard goes beyond concern over alleged antisemitism. It wants to dictate Harvard’s faculty hiring and its admissions policy. The link to the full letter follows the quote.
“Harvard must abolish all criteria, preferences, and practices, whether mandatory or optional, throughout its admissions and hiring practices, that function as ideological litmus tests. Every department or field found to
lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by hiring a critical mass of new faculty within that department or field who will provide viewpoint diversity; every teaching unit found to
lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by admitting a critical mass of students who will
provide viewpoint diversity. If the review finds that the existing faculty in the relevant
department or field are not capable of hiring for viewpoint diversity, or that the relevant
teaching unit is not capable of admitting a critical mass of students with diverse viewpoints,
hiring or admissions within that department, field, or teaching unit shall be transferred to the
closest cognate department, field, or teaching unit that is capable of achieving viewpoint
diversity. This audit shall be performed and the same steps taken to establish viewpoint
diversity every year during the period in which reforms are being implemented, which shall
be at least until the end of 2028.”
https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Letter-Sent-to-Harvard-2025-04-11.pdf
On April 17, the Associated Press reported intent to also install political monitors at non-academic nonprofits that get government funds.
“The nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice says staff from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency contacted them to assign a team to the organization and told them they planned to similarly install teams with all nonprofits receiving funds appropriated by Congress.”
https://apnews.com/article/doge-vera-institute-nonprofits-independence-civil-society-trump-3ddbc5aa709d1b829e56cf0a1b69bd0f
Your comment suggests the editorial is somehow at odds with facts you share. Nothing in it was to suggest that anything outside the narrow comments made in it are otherwise than they are. Yours point out that the full context is broader and more egregious than those made in the editorial for the sake of brevity.
Nothing in the editorial is at odds with facts. as you state, there is broader context, which the editorial did not have space to explore. Some of the administration’s broadening penalties affect local people. An example is, https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2025-04-22/over-50-vermont-farms-lose-federal-funding-climate-resilience-projects?utm_source=Vermont+Public&utm_campaign=9bba52126f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_04_23_09_40&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-9bba52126f-588854224&mc_cid=9bba52126f&mc_eid=4c3784ddd5