Harvard professors pledge to take pay cut in support of university’s fight against Trump

Dozens of Harvard University professors are pledging to take a temporary pay cut to support the school as it fights the Trump administration’s move to freeze billions of dollars in federal funding. 

In another huge financial blow, President Trump said Friday that the government will also be rescinding the university’s tax exempt status.

So far, 84 senior faculty members have pledged to donate 10% of their salary this year “as our contribution to the university’s financial resources while it legally contests these attacks,” organizers said in a statement. Government professor Ryan Enos says the commitment adds up to an estimated $2.5 million, a small portion of the more than $2 billion in lost funding.

Jeffrey Flier, a physiology and medicine professor at Harvard Medical School who has signed on to the effort, said tenured faculty are in the best position to support Harvard “in this time of crisis.”

“This signals our commitment as faculty members to use means at our disposal to protect the university and, especially, staff and students who do not have the same protections,” organizers wrote in the pledge. 

Harvard’s lawsuit against Trump

Harvard filed a lawsuit last week after the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in federal funding and then signaled its intention to suspend another $1 billion in grants for the Ivy League school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“We are heartened by the University’s rejection of the Trump administration’s unlawful demands,” faculty members said in their pledge. “We also recognize that the University now faces severe financial damage for its defense of academic freedom.”

The Trump administration previously said it was reviewing about $9 billion in grants and contracts with Harvard as it investigated alleged antisemitic incidents on campus. It then sent a letter to Harvard demanding leadership reforms and an end to diversity, equity and inclusion policies, among other changes, if the school wanted federal funding to continue.

“The gravy train of federal assistance to institutions like Harvard, which enrich their grossly overpaid bureaucrats with tax dollars from struggling American families, is coming to an end,” the Trump administration said last week in reaction to Harvard’s lawsuit.  

Harvard president Alan Garber said the funding cuts would have “stark real-life consequences,” as much of the money the school receives from the federal government goes toward medical and scientific research.

“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber said.