Going for broke: The Trump administration sent a clear message to Harvard: implement a series of policy changes, several aimed at combating campus anti-Semitism, or lose up to $9 billion in federal funds. The Ivy League school is choosing the latter.
In an email to faculty members on Monday, university president Alan Garber said Harvard "will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights" and has "informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement." The Trump administration in turn froze $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard, taking the school to task for its "troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation's most prestigious universities and colleges—that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws."
"The move sets Harvard on a different course than Columbia University, which agreed, at least in writing, to similar demands from the Trump administration," writes the Free Beacon's Collin Anderson. In Harvard's case, the administration "demanded a series of policy changes including a 'comprehensive mask ban,' an audit of 'programs and departments that most fuel antisemitic harassment,' and meaningful disciplinary action 'for all violations that occurred during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years,' including the expulsion of two students who have now been criminally charged for accosting an Israeli classmate shortly after Oct. 7."
"Harvard's $53 billion endowment dwarfs that of Columbia's which sits at $15 billion. Still, the school has signaled that the suspension of federal funds will have a material impact. 'If this funding is stopped, it will halt life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation,' Garber said last month. The university also implemented a hiring freeze in response to 'substantial financial uncertainties driven by rapidly shifting federal policies.'"
READ MORE: Harvard Rejects Deal With Trump Admin, Putting Billions in Federal Funding at Risk
Liberation in the Land of Lincoln: Last month, our Aaron Sibarium blew the lid off of a state-run scholarship program for graduate students in Illinois that explicitly excluded white applicants. The Department of Justice quickly threatened to sue—and both Illinois and six participating universities responded by shutting the program down.
"The capitulations are an early win for Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has promised to eliminate 'illegal DEI and DEIA preferences' in higher education and the private sector," writes Sibarium. "In a statement announcing the scholarship’s demise, Bondi noted that the federal government had not actually filed suit but that threatening litigation was sufficient to scuttle the program."
"While some institutions have vowed to defend DEI in the wake of the Trump administration’s assault, many have taken the path of least resistance. On the same day that the Department of Justice settlement was announced, for example, four law firms agreed to end their diversity programs as part of a deal with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)."
READ MORE: Illinois Scraps Race-Based Scholarship In Wake of Free Beacon Report
Jugs in space: It was a tremendous triumvirate of voluptuous voyagers: Lauren Sanchez, the body-positive icon and internationally beloved fiancée of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; Katy Perry, the notoriously buxom musical legend; and… Gayle King, the CBS News anchor and Democratic donor?
King's questionable inclusion in the group notwithstanding, the three women and several others thrust their way into the history books as part of the first all-female crew to travel to space.* They did so on a phallus-shaped rocket operated by Blue Origin, the Bezos-owned space firm. Their flight lasted all of 11 minutes, including 3 spent in zero gravity. They dressed in tight space suits, shrieking and giggling throughout. Perry pledged to "put the 'ass' in astronaut." And none of them appeared to suffer from the complications some cosmetic surgeons warn can result from traveling to space with breast implants and lip filler.
"In an interview conducted mere steps from the Blue Origin space capsule, Sanchez described feeling 'complete and utter joy,' the same emotion that defined Kamala Harris's presidential campaign," writes our Andrew Stiles. "Asked to describe the profundity of spaceflight, the Bezos babe responded with Kamala-esque eloquence. 'You look at [Earth] and you're like, "We're all in this together,"' she mused. 'Like, all I could think about was, we're so connected, more connected than you realize, because you just see right here, you see like, you know, states, and all these things that, like, divide us but we're not [divided].'"
*Technically the first all-female spaceflight was in 1963, when Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova orbited the earth on a solo mission. Because she's a filthy communist, however, she doesn't actually belong in the history books.
READ MORE: Holding Space: Women Rejoice as Bezos Gal Pal, Others Make History
Away from the Beacon:
- Smiling through it all: Gretchen Whitmer addressed her now-infamous Oval Office folder photo on Monday, saying, "I don't want my picture taken. That's all it was. I kind of wish I hadn't put my folder up in front of my face. But whatever. … I mean, I just wrote a book about learning to laugh at yourself, so I'm pretty good at it."
- Mostly peaceful child murder: CBS News reported on the discovery of an ancient Mayan altar used for child sacrifices—by quoting an archaeologist who said the practice was not violent. "It was a practice; it's not that they were violent, it was their way of connecting with the celestial bodies," said María Belén Méndez.
- During its very serious "Gayle Goes to Space" coverage, CBS News host Vladimir Duthiers asked former astronaut Mae Jemison to explain how the journey "benefits mankind." "Uh, so it benefits humankind," Jemison responded, "and I'm gonna keep correcting the mankind and the man-made and manned missions."