"There is a chance that because of this interview, I may no longer get a visa to enter the US" says Harvard Law School professor Alain-Laurent Verbeke. This week, 1.9 billion euros in grants to the university were frozen because it does not want to respond to US government demands on diversity and ‘anti-Semitism’. ‘This way of acting is unacceptable and unconstitutional,’ the Flemish academic says.
Flemish Harvard professor denounces Trump's decision to freeze billions in university funding
Many of his colleagues that VRT News contacted are afraid to respond publicly. Out of fear, now that the US government is taking action on Harvard University funding. Law professor Alain-Laurent Verbeke thinks it is his job to speak out. ‘I will not be silenced,’ he says.
Verbeke is a law professor at Leuven University (KU Leuven) and as an associate professor has taught the course ‘Negotiation’ at Harvard Law School every year since 2007. He too realises that in today's US, it no longer goes without saying that you can publicly express reservations about government policy.
"Suppose this interview is noticed by the administration and they find me too critical, it could be the case that I will no longer be able to give my lectures in January 2026 because I will no longer get a visa. So, there is a real chance that I will no longer be able to give lectures, for this reason. Then so be it!"
Funds frozen
This week, the US government froze 1.9 billion euros in Harvard grants and 53 million euros in contracts. On his social media platform Truth Social President Donald J. Trump also threatened to reduce Harvard’s tax breaks. In total, nearly 8 billion euros in funding and contracts for Harvard are under review.
The intervention follows an 11 April letter to Harvard President Alan Garber. In it, the Trump administration demands far-reaching changes from the university on diversity policies and what the administration calls ‘anti-Semitism’.
Among other things, the administration calls for Harvard to suspend students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at the university. The university should also withdraw recognition from pro-Palestinian student clubs, five of which the administration names. Harvard would also no longer be allowed to pursue gender or ethnic diversity in staff recruitment and student selection.
‘Government wants to take over university’
Harvard's president declined to comment on the government's demand. ‘No government - no matter which party is in power - should dictate what private universities can teach, who they can admit and hire, and what fields of study and research they can pursue,’ Garber responded. Thereupon, the billions for Harvard were frozen.
‘That letter of 11 April is quite surreal,’ Verbeke responds. "It actually amounts to an attempt to take over the university and control its content. After all, I have been teaching at Harvard for almost 20 years now. This is a hugely aggressive move by the government, really unprecedented."
Impact already being felt
‘Harvard gets a lot of funding for medical research,’ the professor offers as an example. "If you get that money, you have to accept that you have to be accountable for how you use it. That accountability should be about the quality of your research and not, for example, about pro-Palestinian views present on campus," says Verbeke.
The professor expects an impact mainly on medical research, and on research at engineering faculties, because they are expensive. ‘Right now, there is also a temporary pause in recruitment, across the university,’ Verbeke adds.
The impact of US policy on universities has been felt for some time. "A few weeks ago, I received an email from Harvard asking me to delete my Google Drive, which contains papers by students. It is feared that the Trump administration wants to scrutinise those papers looking for activist views and then take action against those students. So I did just that and emptied my Drive."
Woke
Verbeke himself has some reservations about the impact that progressive student views sometimes have on the Harvard curriculum. He refers to ‘woke’, ‘cancel culture’ and feels that those views sometimes ‘go too far’.
He gives the example of a comment he received during an evaluation. "I try to use “he” and “she” as much as possible in my classes. Balanced, so that my cases would be diverse. But there was a comment about that because it was said to exclude non-binary people," says Verbeke.
"We also had to remove a case from the curriculum that dealt with gender discrimination in the workplace. That example contained a number of clichés around women. That led to a heated debate between 2 students and a complaint. Colleagues on my “teaching team” no longer wanted to use that example after that," the professor says. ‘Standing up for minority rights is important, but we should not go too far,’ he believes.
Diversity of views
"Trump is responding to that. I have some understanding for it. But not for the unacceptable and also unconstitutional way in which it is happening," Verbeke summarises. "In their letter, the government claims to advocate in favour of “viewpoint diversity”. But they obviously don't do that themselves. The Trump administration is going through a China shop like an elephant, trying to exclude some viewpoints."
According to Verbeke, viewpoint diversity is essential for a university and certainly still possible at Harvard. He himself has never noticed any anti-Semitism either. "I gave a workshop as recently as January 2024 on how to have conversations about highly difficult conflicts like Gaza. There were Israeli and Palestinian students in the group there. It was like walking on eggshells, but we were able to have a conversation," he says. ‘Keeping the dialogue open, that's what it's about, isn't it?’