When Alan Garber, the Jewish physician and economist who now leads Harvard, wrote a letter to the community about why the country’s oldest university would not agree to the Trump administration’s demands, he spoke not just about academic freedom, but also about moral boundaries and identity.

“Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard,” he wrote. The Trump administration antisemitism task force immediately announced it would freeze $2.6 billion in funding to Harvard over its refusal to adopt the sweeping set of federal requirements.

Garber’s stance aligns him with other Jewish university presidents now navigating a volatile political landscape. Christopher Eisgruber of Princeton recently pushed back on the administration’s efforts to monitor campus discourse. MIT’s Sally Kornbluth and Wesleyan’s Michael Roth also have issued statements warning that free expression and academic independence are at risk.