Decision follows another $450 million federal funding curb
Harvard University’s president will have a smaller paycheck soon, due to his decision to take a 25 percent pay cut.
President Alan Garber, who likely makes at least $1 million, has refused to comply with the Trump administration’s demands concerning DEI and antisemitism. Instead, the university will continue to lose hundreds of millions in federal funding.
President Garber (pictured) made the announcement recently as a show of solidarity with faculty and staff who are facing pay freezes. “More than 80 faculty members — from several schools and academic units — have pledged to donate 10 percent of their salaries for up to a year to support the University if it continues to resist the Trump administration,” The Harvard Crimson reported.
The Ivy League university is also freezing spending elsewhere, according to The Harvard Crimson.
The student newspaper reported:
In March, Harvard hit pause on faculty and staff hiring, directing schools to curb discretionary spending, reassess capital projects, and halt new multi-year commitments. In April, Harvard told employees it would not award merit pay raises to faculty and non-union staff in fiscal year 2026. And earlier this week, Faculty of Arts and Sciences professors were instructed to develop contingency plans for how their departments would handle budget shortfalls — as administrators acknowledge they expect long-term financial fallout.
This is not the first time Garber has reduced his pay in the wake of challenges affecting Harvard. In 2020, as provost, he took a similar 25 percent cut in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Then-President Lawrence S. Bacow and several deans also accepted temporary reductions as Harvard confronted a projected $750 million revenue shortfall.
The student newspaper noted that a lawsuit against Trump’s cuts is still working its way through the legal system.
President Trump has taken aim at Harvard, alleging it discriminates on the basis of race and fails to protect Jewish students.
In early May, he pledged to revoke the school’s tax-exempt status, as reported by The Fix. However, the university said “there is no legal basis” for doing so.
“Such an unprecedented action would endanger our ability to carry out our educational mission. It would result in diminished financial aid for students, abandonment of critical medical research programs, and lost opportunities for innovation,” the university told Fox News. “The unlawful use of this instrument more broadly would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America.”
On the other hand, Harvard’s endowment has continued to grow while it receives billions of dollars in federal funding, according to government watchdog group Open the Books.
“In any given year, Harvard collected more in federal grants and contracts than they stood to gain through tuition, room & board. (This does not consider financial aid, loans, etc., but is self-reported tuition charges from Harvard),” the organization found.
“Meanwhile, even more astonishing: Harvard’s endowment has grown by $14 BILLION since 2018 (for a total of $53.2B) — that means they’re sitting on more than $7 million for every undergraduate student as they collect billions in grants and contracts,” according to its report.
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Harvard University President Alan Garber; Harvard University/YouTube
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