Harvard digs in for battle, but Trump's blows are landing

A federal judge on Friday gave Harvard a temporary reprieve, but the matter isn't resolved

- Sara Randazzo, Douglas Belkin & Emily Glazer

As President Trump escalated his attacks against Harvard University, its board resolved to fight. Trustees discussed whether to sue or pursue deal talks after Trump first targeted the university in March. But as the president lobbed bomb after bomb at the school—pulling billions in federal funds, threatening its tax-exempt status, and now trying to block it from enrolling international students—the group stood firm.

To strain the university's finances while the legal fights drag on. "These federal actions have set in motion changes that will not be undone, at least not in the foreseeable future," Hopi Hoekstra, the dean of Harvard's faculty of arts and sciences, said in a recent faculty meeting.

Funding is unlikely to return to its full level even if Harvard wins a lawsuit it has filed against the federal government seeking to restore billions in federal funds, Hoekstra said. Special committees are analyzing staffing and looking for ways to keep research going. Harvard's school of public health has conducted layoffs, reduced graduate-student admissions and cut back on everyday expenses like printing and catering.

To backfill some of the billions in lost research funds, the school is contributing an additional $250 million "for a transitional period as we continue to work with our researchers to identify alternative funding sources," said Harvard President Alan Garber, who himself is taking a 25% pay cut.