哈佛大学与白宫的谈判随着学生们还校变得更加复杂

【中美创新时报2025 年 9 月 1 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）数月来，哈佛大学和特朗普政府一直在就一项和解协议进行谈判，该协议或将解决联邦政府对该校及其文化的调查，并恢复数十亿美元的被取消的研究经费。至少在剑桥，许多人曾希望在学生秋季学期返校之前能够达成和解。《波士顿环球报》记者Aidan Ryan, Anjali Huynh and Tal Kopan对此作了下述报道。

然而，尽管周二开学，双方仍未达成任何协议。尽管哈佛大学的学生、教职员工和校友们正焦急地等待着协议的消息，但秋季恢复正常的校园生活可能会使谈判变得复杂，至少对哈佛大学的管理层来说是如此。

暑假校园寂静之际，哈佛大学做出了一些改变——其中一些符合白宫的要求——但遭到了许多师生的反对。如今，这些师生返校，他们面临着越来越大的压力，要么达成一项校园 能够接受的广泛协议，要么继续与一个许多人厌恶的政府抗争。

“我们真正担心的是，他们正在达成协议，而我们却无法抗议，因为我们都不在场，”哈佛大学三年级学生、“学生自由”组织联合创始人卡尔·莫尔登（Karl Molden）说道，该组织是一个反对大学与政府达成协议的校园团体。“现在这件事并没有发生，这给了我们希望，但也向我们发出信号，我们需要继续发声……继续抗议，这样哈佛才不会与特朗普达成协议。”

据一位特朗普政府官员透露，谈判仍在进行中，哈佛大学和白宫最近几天尚未就达成协议取得实质性进展。由于未获授权公开置评，该官员要求匿名接受《波士顿环球报》。在本周的内阁会议上，特朗普总统指示教育部长琳达·麦克马洪接受哈佛大学“不少于5亿美元的”拨款。

哈佛大学发言人拒绝对此次谈判发表评论。

自今年1月上任以来，特朗普政府一直声称哈佛大学未能打击校园内的反犹太主义，尤其是在加沙战争抗议活动期间，而且总体上过于左倾。哈佛大学本身也承认校园内存在反犹太主义——今年早些时候，该校发布了长达500页的严厉批评校园反犹太主义和伊斯兰恐惧症的报告——并已采取措施解决这个问题，就连特朗普政府也承认了这一点。

但白宫提出的一系列要求最终远远超出了打击反犹太主义的改革范畴，其中包括要求哈佛大学彻底改革其治理、招聘流程和招生政策。今年4月，哈佛大学坚决拒绝了这些要求，从而赢得了校内外的广泛支持。

作为回应，政府取消了近 30 亿美元的研究经费，试图禁止哈佛大学接收国际学生，并威胁该大学的认证。

哈佛大学随后提起诉讼，并在法庭上取得了一些初步胜利。（在联邦资助案中，哈佛大学请求法院在9月3日之前作出裁决。）但白宫继续升级行动，对其从员工记录到专利的方方面面展开调查和审查。仅凭法院裁决，很可能无法终止政府的广泛行动。

与此同时，谈判仍在幕后悄然进行，特朗普曾多次暗示可能即将达成一项“历史性”协议。尽管他的政府今年夏天与哥伦比亚大学和布朗大学达成了协议，但哈佛大学长期以来一直是其最大的目标。

现在，随着下周课程的开始，一些学生组织表示他们正准备向哈佛大学施压，要求其继续抗争。

莫尔登的组织是为了直接回应特朗普针对哈佛大学的行动而成立的。他表示，他和其他人正计划举行公开示威，敦促哈佛大学继续在法庭上抗争，而不是达成协议。他担心，任何协议都可能意味着哈佛大学将特朗普的要求“合法化”，并可能引发进一步的诉求。

莫尔登说：“你做出的每一次让步，他都会要求更多。”

与此同时，正在与哈佛大学进行合同谈判的哈佛大学研究生会表示，他们越来越担心哈佛大学在某些方面向联邦政府做出让步，包括在反歧视政策方面拥有多少发言权的争论。

作为工会，我们担心哈佛会站在特朗普一边，而不是员工，”谈判委员会成员亚历克西斯·米兰达（Alexis Miranda）表示。“我们的首要任务是确保我们的员工赢得应有的权利，无论是否达成协议，我们都将继续向哈佛施压，确保这一点。”

（哈佛大学发言人 6 月份表示，其向工会提出的反歧视提案“与大学的立场一致，即反歧视、反欺凌和第九条政策是解决这些问题的适当程序。”）

已经引起学生愤怒的行动包括，本月，学校指示教授们取下自 2020 年以来一直悬挂在实验室窗户上的“黑人的命也是命”标语，以遵守校园禁止“自行安装展示品”的新规定。

哈佛大学文理学院发言人詹姆斯·奇泽姆在一份声明中表示，校园规定禁止未经事先批准的任何此类标牌。

“在这个位置的任何类似装置，无论内容是什么，都会被拆除，”奇泽姆说。“如果展板上写着‘击败耶鲁’，就必须拆除。”

还有教职员工，其中一些人将特朗普的做法比作敲诈勒索。美国大学教授协会哈佛分会的成员正在起诉特朗普政府，并承诺将反对任何包含他们认为代表政府越权条款的协议。

哈佛大学教授克尔斯滕·韦尔德（Kirsten Weld）和安德鲁·克雷斯波（Andrew Crespo）本月早些时候在《波士顿环球报》的一篇专栏文章中写道：“如果校董们愿意与政治人物进行幕后敲诈勒索的交易，那么教职员工、学生和校友就必须有责任保护学术自由、大学独立和言论自由。在我们代表哈佛提起的诉讼中，我们不会放弃这些原则。”

但 教师队伍并不是铁板一块，有些人——尤其是那些依靠联邦拨款来资助研究的教师——比其他人面临更多的直接风险。

哈佛医学院和哈佛公共卫生学院教授阿尔贝托·阿斯切里奥 (Alberto Ascherio)失去了 700 万美元用于研究多发性硬化症等神经退行性疾病治疗方法的资金，他在接受采访时表示，他同意学术自由是不可谈判的，并 相信哈佛大学校长艾伦·加伯 (Alan Garber) 会保护它。

然而，他得不到资金的时间越长，他就越担心自己最好的合作伙伴和科学家会离开去从事其他工作，这将损害哈佛的学术文化，并可能意味着他必须从头开始他的研究。

“如果我们拿不回这笔钱，我们真的损失惨重，错失了影响人们生活的机会，”阿斯切里奥说。“我们需要灵活变通，不是为了我们自己，也不是为了哈佛大学本身，而是为了数百万期待我们回报他们长期投入的成果的人。”

当然，哈佛大学是一所以世纪为单位而非学期为单位进行思考的大学，尽管随着课程的恢复，解决这场斗争的压力可能很大，但最终任何协议的实质都比协议的时机更重要。

“哈佛应该秉持原则，同时也要务实，”前校长拉里·萨默斯说道。至于具体时间，则“取决于谈判的内容和结果”。

题图：哈佛大学将于周二开学。乔希·雷诺兹/《华盛顿邮报》

附原英文报道：

Students are coming back, and that could make Harvard’s negotiations with the White House even more complicated

Many on campus are eager to see the school continue to resist Trump administration demands

By Aidan Ryan, Anjali Huynh and Tal Kopan Globe Staff,Updated August 30, 2025, 6:00 a.m.

Classes are set to begin Tuesday at Harvard.Josh Reynolds/For The Washington Post

Inside The War On harvard

For months, Harvard University and the Trump administration have been negotiating a settlement that could resolve federal investigations into the university and its culture and restore billions of dollars in canceled research funding. And at least in Cambridge, many had hoped that a resolution could come before students returned to campus for the fall semester.

But with classes set to begin Tuesday, no agreement has materialized. And even as Harvard students, faculty, and alums anxiously await news of a deal, the resumption of normal campus life for the fall could complicate negotiations, at least for Harvard’s administration.

When campus was quiet for the summer, Harvard made changes — some in line with White House demands — that many students and faculty oppose. Now those students and faculty are back, and the pressure to make a wide-ranging deal that its campus can accept, or to keep fighting an administration many loathe, will likely only grow.

“The thing we were really scared of is that they were making a deal and we could not even protest it because we’re all not there,” said Karl Molden, a junior at Harvard and cofounder of Students for Freedom, a campus group advocating against a deal between the university and the government. “That’s something now that did not happen, which gives us hope, but also signals to us that we need to keep speaking out … and keep protesting so Harvard does not make a deal with Trump.”

Talks are still ongoing and Harvard and the White House have not drawn substantially nearer to a deal in recent days, according to a Trump administration official who spoke to the Globe anonymously because they were not authorized to comment publicly. In a Cabinet meeting this week, President Trump told Education Secretary Linda McMahon to accept “nothing less than $500 million” from the university.

“Don’t negotiate, Linda,” he said.

A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment on the talks.

Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has asserted that Harvard failed to combat antisemitism on campus, especially amid protests over the war in Gaza, and is generally too left-leaning. Harvard itself has acknowledged antisemitism on campus — earlier this year the university issued 500 pages worth of blistering reports on campus antisemitism and Islamophobia — and has taken steps, which even the Trump administration has acknowledged, to address it.

But the White House’s sweeping list of demands ultimately went far beyond reforms focused on combating antisemitism, including mandates that Harvard overhaul its governance, hiring practices, and admissions policies. And the university’s full-throated rejection of those demands in April won it wide support on and off campus.

In response, the government canceled nearly $3 billion in research funding, attempted to bar Harvard from hosting international students, and threatened the university’s accreditation.

Harvard then sued, and has scored some early wins in court. (In its federal funding case, Harvard has asked the court to rule by Sept. 3.) But the White House has continued to escalate, opening investigations and reviews into everything from its employee records to its patents. And court rulings alone likely won’t put an end to the wide scope of the government’s actions.

Meanwhile, negotiations have quietly continued behind the scenes, with Trump at various times suggesting an ‘HISTORIC’ deal could be near. While his administration struck agreements with Columbia University and Brown University over the summer, Harvard has long been its biggest target.

Now, with classes beginning next week, several student organizations said they are gearing up to put pressure on Harvard to keep fighting.

Molden, whose group formed in direct response to Trump’s campaign against Harvard, said he and others are planning public demonstrations urging the university to keep fighting in the courts rather than cut a deal. He worries that any agreement would signal Harvard’s “legitimization” of Trump’s asks, and would likely lead to further demands.

“For every concession you make,” Molden said, “he’s going to ask for more.”

Meanwhile, Harvard’s Graduate Student Union, which is in the midst of contract negotiations with the university, said it has grown increasingly concerned by areas it believes Harvard is conceding to the federal government, including a battle over how much say they get on antidiscrimination policies.

“As a union, our worry is that Harvard will side with Trump over its workers,” said bargaining committee member Alexis Miranda. “Our priority is to ensure that our workers win the rights they deserve, and we will continue to press Harvard — deal or no deal — to ensure this happens.”

(A Harvard spokesperson said in June that its antidiscrimination proposal to the union “is aligned with the University’s position that the Non-Discrimination, Anti-Bullying, and Title IX policies are the appropriate processes for these concerns.”)

Among the actions that have already drawn student outrage include the university this month instructing professors to take down a “Black Lives Matter” sign that has been displayed in a lab window since 2020, in accordance with new campus rules prohibiting “self-mounted displays.”

James Chisholm, a spokesperson for Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said in a statement that campus rules prohibit any such signage without prior approval.

“Any installation like this in this location would be taken down, regardless of the content,” Chisholm said. “If the display said, ‘BEAT YALE,’ it would have to be removed.”

Then there’s the faculty, some of whom have likened Trump’s approach to extortion. Members of Harvard’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which is suing the Trump administration, have pledged to fight any agreement that includes provisions they believe represent a government overreach.

“If trustees are willing to engage in extortionate backroom dealings with political operatives, it must be the role of faculty, staff, students, and alumni to protect academic freedom, university independence, and free speech,” Harvard professors Kirsten Weld and Andrew Crespo wrote in a Globe op-ed earlier this month. “In our own lawsuit on behalf of Harvard, we will not trade these principles away.

But the faculty is not a monolith, and some — particularly those who rely on federal grants to fund their research — have more directly on the line than others.

Alberto Ascherio, a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health who lost $7 million in funding for research into a cure for neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis, said in an interview that he agrees academic freedom is non-negotiable and trusts Harvard president Alan Garber to protect it.

Still, the longer he goes without funding, the more he fears that his best collaborators and scientists will leave for other jobs, which would damage the academic culture at Harvard and could mean he’d have to start his study from scratch.

“If we don’t get the money back, we are really losing a lot and missing an opportunity in terms of having an impact on people’s lives,” Ascherio said. “We need to be flexible, not for us or for Harvard itself, but just for the millions of people who expect us to give back results in which they invested a lot for a long period of time.”

Of course, Harvard is an institution that thinks in centuries, not semesters, and while the pressure may feel high to resolve this fight as classes resume, ultimately the substance of any deal will matter far more than its timing.

“Harvard should be approaching this with principle and also some pragmatism,” said former university president Larry Summers. As for timing, that should “depend on the content and results of the negotiation.”