NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s leading online newspaper. Published by Africa’s international award-winning journalist, Mr. Isaac Umunna, NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s first truly professional online daily newspaper. It is published from Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and media hub, and has a provision for occasional special print editions. Thanks to our vast network of sources and dedicated team of professional journalists and contributors spread across Nigeria and overseas, NEWS EXPRESS has become synonymous with newsbreaks and exclusive stories from around the world.
As Harvard University fights in federal court against the Trump administration’s nearly $3 billion in funding cuts or freezes, over two dozen universities are supporting the Cambridge institution in new court filings.
However, Columbia University and Cornell University are notably the only Ivy League institutions that are absent from the document, known as an amicus brief.
The court filing points to how the funding cuts to Harvard would “negatively impact the entire research ecosystem,” in addition to the “Nation’s universities, to the public welfare and to America’s position in the world,” according to the filing.
The filing initially had 18 institutions and six requested to join on Monday.
Spokespeople at both institutions didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment.
The institutions that have signed on to the court document include:
American University
Georgetown University
Stanford university
University of Delaware
University of Denver
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Boston University
Brown University
California Institute of Technology
Colorado State University
Dartmouth College
Johns Hopkins University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Michigan State University
Oregon State University
Princeton University
Rice University
Rutgers University
Tufts University
University of Maryland, College Park
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
Yale University
While Columbia hasn’t signed on in support of Harvard’s lawsuit, an alumni group called Columbia Alumni for Academic Freedom has offered support in a separate amicus brief. The group was organized in March 2025 in response to the Trump administration’s actions toward both Columbia and Harvard.
The group said members are “united in the conviction that nothing about recent campus events — ones that reflect real fissures in our world and nation — remotely justifies, nor is the true reason for, the sweeping, indiscriminate and punitive actions recently visited upon Columbia and Harvard by the Trump Administration."
What has happened at Columbia?
Columbia has been in a similar fight to Harvard with the Trump administration.
Most recently, the U.S. Department of Education threatened Columbia’s accreditation due to its response to campus antisemitism.
It was the first institution to be offered an ultimatum — either abide by a list of requirements laid out for them or jeopardize its “continued financial relationship with the United States government.”
Columbia later agreed to implement a list of policy changes, including overhauling its rules for protests and conducting an immediate review of its Middle Eastern studies department.
After Harvard University was also issued an ultimatum — with billions of dollars of funding on the line — Harvard pushed back against the administration. The university has multiple lawsuits against the federal government right now.
Quickly following in Harvard’s footsteps, Columbia pledged not to make any agreement with the federal government that would “relinquish our independence and autonomy,” according to a message from the university’s president.
Columbia is also being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education for failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitic discrimination and harassment. Six Massachusetts institutions are also part of the investigation.
Cornell, the other institution that did not sign onto the legal document in support of Harvard, had $1 billion in funding frozen in April. (Yahoo News)