Harvard University said it will not take the $8.6 million in aid with was granted as part of the U.S. government’s efforts to cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus lockdown, reversing itself and bending to U.S. President Donald Trump who said Tuesday that the university should not take the money.
“Harvard is going to pay back the money and they shouldn’t be taking it,” Trump said Tuesday at a White House press briefing.
Harvard said Tuesday that it planned to keep the money, promising to use it for student financial assistance but not for institutional costs.
On Wednesday, the university reversed itself. Harvard has an endowment worth nearly $41 billion, a fund so large that some have described it as “a hedge fund disguised as a university.”