BURSTHarvard and the Trump administration are in the thick of negotiations to restore the university’s funding, moving closer to a deal but with nothing set in stone.
A source familiar with the discussions told The Hill there are still real barriers that need to be overcome but that a deal is “close.”
Currently, the outline of a deal is looking like Harvard will pay $500 million to educational and vocational programs as one of the actions to restore federal funding and have all federal investigations dropped against it, sources told The New York Times.
One difficult hurdle to get over, the outlet reported, is the Trump administration’s desire to have access to Harvard’s admission data, including a break down of the numbers by race and test scores. The nation’s oldest and richest university also does not want a monitor to oversee compliance with the deal.
Both conditions were agreed to by Columbia and Brown, the only universities so far to reach a deal with the administration to restore funding.
Harvard has had more complicated negotiations than other schools as it was the only one to fight back with two lawsuits over funding cuts and President Trump’s desire to take away the university’s ability to have foreign students.
Harvard has insisted on its academic independence throughout negotiations as the Trump administration has signaled these deals with schools should be an outline for other institutions.
The deal between Harvard and the Trump administration could still fall apart at any moment.