Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) praised the Trump Administration's decision to freeze federal funding for Harvard University in light of Harvard's refusal to
"Schools are not entitled to U.S. taxpayer dollars if they're not living up to the standards and not protecting civil rights of Jewish students on campuses," Stefanik said in an interview with CNBC.
"Let's take a step back to what has led to this earthquake within higher education," she continued. "After October 7th, we saw skyrocketing of antisemitism on college campuses, particularly our most elite college campuses, whether it was Harvard or Columbia. You saw physical assaults against Jewish students, you saw a takeover of classrooms, you saw riots of property at school, destruction, and then you didn't see enforcement [by] these universities against those who violated the rules."
She stated that since these colleges receive billions in American taxpayers' money, "We have a responsibility to be good stewards, to make sure that they are protecting Jewish students, and they have abjectively failed."
Stefanik stated that Harvard, from which she graduated in 2006, "has been the epitome of this failure. They didn't enforce the rules. They gave the diplomas to those who committed these antisemitic crimes against fellow students. We're talking about physical assaults."
"These schools rank among the lowest when it comes to protecting free speech. They only want to protect free speech when it comes to "calling for the genocide of Jews," she added, recalling how the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT refused to state that "calling for the genocide of Jews" violated their schools' code of conduct.
The Trump administration announced this week that it had frozen approximately $2.3 billion in federal funding allocated to Harvard University following the school’s refusal to comply with directives from the White House targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
According to an announcement from the US Department of Education, the decision encompasses a freeze on $2.2 billion in grant money, as well as $60 million in federal contracts previously designated for the Ivy League institution.
The funding cut was announced hours after Harvard University President Alan Garber stated that the university would refuse to comply with the Trump administration's demands on campus protests, diversity programs, and campus antisemitism.