Harvard University defies Trump's demands, risks $9 billion in federal funding

Elite US university Harvard was hit with a $2.2 billion freeze in federal funding Monday after rejecting a list of sweeping demands that the White House said was intended to crack down on campus anti-Semitism.

The call for changes to its governance, hiring practices and admissions procedures expands on a list Harvard received on April 3, which ordered officials to shut diversity offices and cooperate with immigration authorities for screenings of international students.

Harvard president Alan Garber vowed in a letter to students and faculty to defy the government, insisting that the school would not "negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights."