Harvard Weighs New Conservative Center As Trump Targets School: Report

Harvard University is reportedly considering a new center for conservative scholarship amid criticism from the Trump administration that the school has drifted too far to the Left.

The Ivy League school has mulled starting a program for conservative scholarship for several years, but now the idea is gaining momentum, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The center could cost as much as $1 billion, and Harvard has already discussed the idea with potential donors, the Journal reported.

A Harvard spokesman said the school is ramping up work to set up such a center.

The program would “promote and support viewpoint diversity” and “will ensure exposure to the broadest ranges of perspectives on issues, and will not be partisan, but rather will model the use of evidence-based, rigorous logic and a willingness to engage with opposing views,” Harvard’s spokesman told the outlet.

If it takes shape, Harvard’s new center could potentially be modeled after Stanford’s Hoover Institution, which promotes personal liberty and limited government and is nonpartisan but widely viewed as conservative. Ronald Reagan was the Hoover Institution’s first honorary fellow.

However, the Trump administration would not necessarily view a new center purportedly for conservative thought as a significant step, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the administration’s perspective.

Harvard leaders’ discussions about the potential center come amid a heated battle with the Trump administration over diversity, equity and inclusion practices as well as antisemitism.

In 2023, pro-Palestinian protests erupted on Harvard’s campus, sparking widespread backlash.

Harvard’s president at the time, Claudine Gay, was called to testify in front of Congress about the school’s response to antisemitism on campus. Her testimony was criticized after she hedged on saying whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated the university’s codes of conduct.

The Trump administration has pulled billions in federal funds from the school, threatened Harvard’s tax-exempt status, and moved to block the school from enrolling foreign students.

Harvard is suing, claiming the administration is violating its First Amendment rights and trying to “control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students.”

This week, the administration also threatened Harvard’s accreditation, accusing the school of violating federal discrimination law by failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment.

If Harvard were to lose its accreditation, it would also lose access to federal student aid, typically an existential event for universities that leads to their shuttering.

Harvard’s accreditation is handled by the New England Commission of Higher Education, which is not controlled by the government, but Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent the commission a firm letter about the issue.

“By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers,” McMahon wrote.

She added that the Education Department expects the commission to keep the administration “fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”