Harvard wants $10 million gifts to hire conservative professors — critics say it’s all about Trump

Harvard University is asking donors for $10 million gifts to hire conservative professors, and many see the effort as a response to the Trump administration.

President Alan M. Garber and Provost John F. Manning announced in April that they would raise several hundred million dollars for 20 to 30 new professorships across existing departments. The goal is “viewpoint diversity.”

The administration has investigated the school for liberal bias and cut $2.2 billion of federal funding in April 2025. The university did not respond to a request for comment.

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Harvey Mansfield, a Harvard professor emeritus of government, has long lobbied for what he calls “affirmative action for conservatives.” During a Sept. 17 talk to conservative-leaning lawyers at Harvard Law School, he said “a certain coercion needs to be put to the faculty until this happens.”

Mr. Mansfield also weighed in on President Trump, according to a Sept. 25 article in the Harvard Salient, an undergraduate conservative journal. “I don’t think that the universities would have changed without his intervention, and especially without depriving the universities of large sums of money,” he said.

Omekongo Dibinga, a professor affiliated with American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center, called the fundraising push a “hypocritical DEI hire process for conservative professors.”

“This is all about Trump,” Mr. Dibinga said.

A Harvard Crimson survey found 47% of faculty opposed the plan and 31% supported it.

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• Harvard faces backlash against push to hire conservative faculty

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