Harvard stares down Trump's tax threat as other schools take note

Even within the elite Ivy League, Harvard University stands out as the country's premier institution of higher education. As such, the Trump administration has targeted Harvard in its assault on collegiate infrastructure. But the university has positioned itself to fight back, both in the courts, where it is suing the administration over frozen federal funds, and in the court of public opinion. President Donald Trump's effort to revoke the school's tax-exempt status has "no legal basis," a university spokesperson said, and could have "grave consequences for the future of higher education."

A loss of 'excellence and access'

Trump's online invectives and Harvard's equally staunch response belie the fact that it is "not immediately clear" whether the IRS is moving forward with revoking the school's tax-exempt status, said The New York Times. Not only does such revocation "typically occur only after a lengthy process," but presidents are legally barred from "directing the IRS to conduct tax investigations" to begin with. The government agency will "not allow itself to be weaponized," said former IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, who served under Trump and President Joe Biden, in a statement to Bloomberg. Absent some "appropriate examination" of Harvard's finances and tax status, the IRS "does not and should not conduct a 'fishing expedition' designed to hopefully uncover a relevant issue."

Should Trump succeed in revoking Harvard's tax-exempt status, however, the trickle-down effect could be significant for the school's finances and its broader ability to function. Harvard would "lose excellence and access," said Wellesley College economist Phillip Levine to CBS News. It would no longer have the "ability to enroll the very brightest lower and middle-income students," since the school's ability to offer financial aid would be affected. Harvard's $50 billion endowment affords the school "less protection" than "such a stacked bank account might suggest," thanks to "legal restrictions, donor intent and other red tape," Axios said.

'NATO for higher education'

By resisting the White House's "authoritarian overreach," the university "bolsters the entire system of U.S. higher education," said Harvard graduate, donor, and historian Bruce Kimball at Inside Higher Ed. "If Harvard caves, then no university will dare to defy governmental overreach." But "if Harvard resists, then others will be inspired to do so and shamed if they do not."

To that end, Trump's attacks are not simply targeting the school, but are part of a broader "war on academia" against dozens of institutions for which the Ivy League elicits a "complex brew of resentment and reverence," said the Times. The eight schools that comprise the elite core of American academia are, to Trump, a "club that has never really accepted him."

Given that Trump is targeting not just Harvard, but huge swaths of academia, the "only strategy with a prayer of succeeding" is for schools of all stripes to "come together, making it crystal-clear that they won't give in to assaults on academic freedom," said University of California, Berkeley, Professor David Kirp at The Guardian. That some 200 schools signed a American Association of Colleges and Universities statement decrying the White House's actions is a "great start," but a "NATO for higher education" compact between colleges — one in which schools share financial, legal and professional resources — "might just convince the bully in the White House to back off."