Harvard University isn't a local pizza restaurant or a family-owned lawn furniture store, they're a nearly 400 year old educational institution with an endowment of $40 billion.
Just so we're clear, that's $40 "billion" with a "B".
Similarly, the university didn't cancel class this year; like most universities they sent their students home to complete classes online but students at America's most prestigious university still paid the institution for their classes and books.
So why did Harvard take $9 million intended for small mom-and-pop businesses from the stimulus program?
Harvard is under attack for the $9 million in stimulus money it’s getting from the federal government. “America’s Richest University Grabs Nearly $9 Million In Taxpayer Aid,” blasted a Huffington Post headline yesterday. On Comedy Central last night, Trevor Noah said Harvard was “just being greedy.” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that Harvard was getting cash that should have gone to “a small business that actually needs the money.”
On March 27, Congress passed the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, including a provision that directs $12.5 billion in federal aid to some 5,000 institutions of higher education. The amount each school could receive was based on a formula hastily devised by Congress.
The enrollment-based formula favors schools with large numbers of students on federal Pell grants, which are awarded to students from low- and moderate-income families. Harvard, including its business, law medical and other graduate schools, has 24,000 students. The undergraduate enrollment is 6,700. Sixteen percent of Harvard students are on Pell grants.
On April 9, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos issued a letter allowing schools wide discretion in how they distribute the funds. But she urged them to give the most to students who had unexpected expenses as a result of the pandemic including food, housing, medical bills and technology needed to study online. Harvard didn’t lobby for the funds, according to a Harvard staffer who didn’t want to be quoted.
Harvard has become a lightning rod because it has the largest endowment of any school in the country. In June 2019, the endowment was valued at $41 billion. Why can’t Harvard just spend that money to help students and cover any of its own new expenses resulting from the pandemic?
Harvard claims they will give the money to their students but students also aren't "Small businesses" - the group of people the money was intended for.
Pedestrians walk through Harvard Yard on the closed Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., on Monday, April 20, 2020. College financial aid offices are bracing for a spike in appeals from students finding that the aid packages they were offered for next year are no longer enough after the coronavirus pandemic cost their parents jobs or income. Photographer: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg via Getty Images