Social media users were quick to hop on editing a letter sent by President
Donald Trump
Education Secretary informs Harvard of No More Federal Grants for the Ivy League.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon ramped up the administrations’ war with the college on Monday by sending a letter informing Harvard’s President Dr. Alan Garber his institution will not be eligible to receive money from the federal government until they fall in line with what Trump wants to see from colleges.
But the letter was swiftly lambasted by social media critics who noticed a slew of mistakes made by the woman in charge of helping dismantle the Education Department.
Harvard even edited the letter professor-style and sent it back to McMahon with the errors noted in red pen, according to a few posts made to X with a picture of the marked-up three pages.
‘Harvard is engaging in a systemic (sic) pattern of violating federal law,’ McMahon wrote in her letter, which both the university and others who edited the letter noted was likely meant to say ‘systematic.’
‘Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country—and why is there so much HATE?’ Secretary McMahon continued in the opening paragraph.
The letter goes on to mock Harvard’s educational standards, despite McMahon’s own mistakes. She goes after the Ivy League for the teaching of ‘remedial math’ and calls attention to plagiarism scandals at the school.
White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg from The Independent posted on X about the letter: “The person who composed this has very poor writing skills.”
A different journalist raised doubts about whether it was composed by an artificial intelligence.
An official outlined the developments during a Monday evening conference call prior to McMahon sharing the letter on social media.
“For Harvard to regain eligibility for these competitions, it must engage in negotiations with the government to meet their requirements, which they claim align with all federal regulations,” the official stated.
This action would affect research grants, however, federal student aid would remain untouched as it flows through universities first, offering students much-needed financial assistance.
Social media users said that Harvard ‘won’ this round of the war with the administration because of the numerous mistakes in the letter.
Right off the bat, McMahon wrote ‘Federal Government,’ which critics said was improper because she capitalized the letters ‘F’ and ‘G’ when it is not a proper noun.
The other mark-ups include noting run-on and incomplete sentences, inconsistent tensing and randomly capitalized words.
Trump has voiced displeasure with universities allowing pro-Palestinian demonstrations to run amok on campuses.
Members of the presidential team have similarly raised concerns about perceived insufficient diversity in higher education institutions, specifically noting an underrepresentation of conservatives among the faculty.
‘They have become monolithically leftist and that DEI ideology connects to the anti-Semitism problem because they’re teaching young people to make snap judgments about each other based on identity and skin color,’ the senior official said.
The latest move represents a major escalation in a months-long war against the prominent institution.
Trump previously froze $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard and said he’s looking into stripping the Ivy of its tax-exempt status.
A Department of Education official said in Monday’s call that Harvard’s endowment is ‘virtually untaxed’ and ‘massive.’
“The size of their wealth exceeds the GDP of numerous nations, and they were able to accumulate such riches solely due to the advantages provided by this country where they conduct their business,” the official stated.
Garber has previously stated that he will not yield to the government.
Last month, the university filed a lawsuit aiming to reverse the funding freeze, resisting the government’s ‘comprehensive and invasive requirements.’
In the letter disseminated through the social media channels of White House officials, McMahon stated that accessing public money was a ‘privilege rather than a right’ and alleged that Harvard was violating federal statutes.
The letter began by addressing the immigration status of students—likely referring to those participating in pro-Palestinian protests—with McMahon stating they had been involved in ‘aggressive actions.’
Read more
Leave a Reply