米共和党、名門ハーバード大の調査開始 「公民権法無視」の疑いで

【ケンブリッジＡＦＰ＝時事】ドナルド・トランプ米大統領が名門大学への攻撃を強める中、共和党議員らは１７日、ハーバード大学が公民権法を無視している疑いがあるとして、同大に対する調査を開始すると発表した。（写真は、米マサチューセッツ州ケンブリッジのハーバード大学で、ドナルド・トランプ大統領による同大への攻撃に対する抗議集会の後、看板を持ってキャンパスを後にする教員）
　共和党議員らは世界的に著名な教育研究機関であるハーバード大に対し、採用慣行や多様性プログラム、キャンパスで昨年行われた親パレスチナデモに関する資料を提出するよう求める書簡を送付した。
　下院監視・説明責任委員会のジェームズ・コマー委員長とエリス・ステファニク下院議員が署名したこの書簡は、国内最古かつ最も裕福な同大に対し、トランプ氏が前例のないレベルの統制を試みる中で出された。
　コマー、ステファニク両氏は、ホワイトハウスによる監査要求を拒否した同大のアラン・ガーバー学長を激しく批判している。ホワイトハウスは同大への２２億ドル（約３１００億円）の助成金を凍結し、さらなる報復措置をちらつかせている。
　両氏はカーバー学長に対し、「ハーバード大学には、違法な差別を防ぐ能力がないのか、あるいはその意思が極めて乏しいのか、貴殿の指示の下、法令順守を回復させるために連邦当局が提案した合理的な和解案に同意することさえ拒否しているようだ」と記し、「どれほど特権を与えられていようと、いかなる機関も法を犯す権利はない」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2025/04/18-17:43）

Republicans in the US Congress announced an investigation into Harvard University on Thursday, accusing it of flouting civil rights law in an escalation of President Donald Trump's attacks on elite institutions.
The lawmakers wrote to the world-renowned education and research establishment demanding documents on its hiring practices, diversity programs and last year's pro-Palestinian campus protests.
The letter -- signed by House Oversight Committee chair James Comer and House leadership chair Elise Stefanik -- came with Trump seeking unprecedented levels of control over the country's oldest and wealthiest university.
Comer and Stefanik castigated Harvard President Alan Garber for rejecting demands for supervision by the White House, which has canceled $2.2 billion in funding and threatened further reprisals.
Harvard is apparently so unable or unwilling to prevent unlawful discrimination that the institution, at your direction, is refusing to enter into a reasonable settlement agreement proposed by federal officials intended to put Harvard back in compliance with the law, they told Garber.
No matter how entitled your behavior, no institution is entitled to violate the law.
Trump -- furious at Harvard for rejecting oversight of its admissions, hiring practices and political slant -- told reporters the university's conduct had been horrific.
The president, who is in charge of every aspect of the federal government, said he was not involved in its fight with Harvard but had read about it.
I think what they did was a disgrace, Trump told reporters at the White House. They're obviously anti-Semitic and all of a sudden, they're starting to behave.
Harvard is just the latest in a series of top universities and other institutions in the administration's crosshairs.
But while New York's Columbia University bowed to less far-ranging demands, Harvard flatly rejected the pressure, saying it would not negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.
Trump said Harvard should lose its government research contracts and tax-exempt status, while administration officials threatened to ban the school from admitting foreigners, who make up more than a quarter of the student body.
Trump has also targeted Brown, Cornell, Northwestern, Pennsylvania and Princeton universities, threatening each with freezes of between $175 million and $1 billion, according to US media.
Republicans have said their campaign against universities is a response to what they call rampant anti-Semitism, following divisive protests against Israel's war in Gaza that swept campuses last year.
Columbia -- an epicenter of the activism -- agreed last month to oversight of its Middle Eastern studies department after being threatened with a loss of $400 million in federal funds.
Harvard staff and students rallied against the Trump administration in a campus protest Thursday aimed at encouraging university leadership to hold the line, research fellow Avi Steinberg told AFP.
They actually want Harvard to make good on its promises to its students and its faculty to protect every single student on campus, to protect the faculty and especially faculty free speech, he said.