Harvard University will “not accept” demands made by President Donald Trump’s administration amid threats of funding cuts, according to a statement issued Monday.

“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” read a post on the university’s X account published Monday. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.”

In an email sent to the Harvard community, President Alan M. Garber said the university received “an updated and expanded list of demands” from the Trump administration, warning them to comply if they’d like to “maintain financial relationship with the federal government.”

The demands, which the administration says are aimed at addressing antisemitism on campus, including restricting acceptance of any international students who are “hostile to the American values and institutions.” The administration also aims to audit programs offered at the school “that most fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture.”

Garber called the demands “unprecedented,” adding that it is an attempt by the federal government “to control the Harvard community.” The university informed Trump’s administration through legal counsel that it will not accept the terms.

“It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner,” Garber said. “Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”

A Florida school district said it won’t renew the contract of a teacher who used a student’s preferred name, instead of legal name, without parental permission, in violation of state law.

Melissa Calhoun is a literature teacher at Satellite High School in the coastal city of Satellite Beach, Florida. According to her LinkedIn profile, she’s worked for the Brevard County Public Schools district for the past 12 years. 

Unless the state intervenes, Calhoun, who did not immediately return requests for comment, could be one of the first educators to lose a job under Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, or what critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

Brevard County Public Schools conducted an investigation after receiving a complaint from a parent who said Calhoun had used a name other than their child’s legal name without the parent’s permission, according to a statement shared by Janet R. Murnaghan, a spokesperson for the district. 

“This directly violates state law and the district’s standardized process for written parental consent,” the statement said. “Based on the teacher’s own admission that she knowingly did not comply with state statute she received a letter of reprimand. Teachers, like all employees, are expected to follow the law.”

Since the state will be reviewing Calhoun’s teacher certificate based on the complaint, the district said it will not renew her annual contract, which expires in May, until the issue is resolved. 

Dozens of students staged a peaceful walkout Thursday to protest the district’s decision not to renew Calhoun’s contract, according to NBC affiliate WESH of Orlando. 

“We’re here to really show support for Ms. Calhoun and to show that we are not OK with what is going on,” sophomore Brianna Knight told WESH. “We truly are upset that we are losing such a positive teacher.”

Calhoun’s supporters also started a petition asking the Brevard County School Board to reinstate her. As of Friday afternoon, it had garnered more than 22,000 signatures. 

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education law in March 2022. At that time, it prohibited “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through third grade “or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” 

A year later, he signed an expanded version of the measure that prohibits sexual orientation or gender identity instruction in prekindergarten through eighth grade, restricts reproductive health education in sixth through 12th grade, and bars schools from requiring students or employees to refer to each other with pronouns that do not align with their assigned sex at birth. It also prohibits transgender school employees from sharing their pronouns with students, among other restrictions. 

In July 2023, a few months after DeSantis signed the expanded measure, the Florida Board of Education passed new rules to ensure schools were following the law and to “strengthen and enhance the safety and welfare of students in K-12 public schools and protect parental rights.”

Among those rules was a requirement that school districts receive parental permission before staffers can call a student by anything other than their legal name, including a nickname, even at the student’s request.

At a school board meeting this week, several parents spoke both in favor of and against the district’s decision not to renew Calhoun’s contract.

“There was no harm, no threat to safety, no malicious intent,” one parent of a student in the district who also said she was one of Calhoun’s colleagues said during the meeting, WESH reported. “Just a teacher trying to connect with a student, and for that, her contract was not renewed despite her strong dedication and years of service. I ask you, how can we justify this?”

School board member Katye Campbell said during the meeting that people might think the rule is “silly,” but that it’s important. 

“The parents are the number one decision-makers for their children,” Campbell said, The Washington Post reported. In response to a question about students’ rights, she said the district shouldn’t interfere in families’ decisions “unless we legally have a reason to.”

The Education Department’s Office of Inspector General plans to conduct a “series of reviews” into the recent mass layoffs at the nation’s education agency, according to a letter obtained by NBC News. 

The probe comes amid efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle the U.S. Education Department, which President Donald Trump has long wanted to do but cannot fully achieve without congressional approval.  

That has not stopped him from trying. In March, Trump signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin winding down the department. The order came shortly after the Education Department announced it was reducing its workforce by about 50%, which McMahon said reflected the department’s commitment to “efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.” 

Trump has said he wants states to have oversight over the education system. The federal workforce cuts have alarmed education advocates, who worry the layoffs will lead to fewer resources for disadvantaged students and other problems.  

A group of 11 Democratic senators expressed their concerns to the Education Department’s acting inspector general, René Rocque, writing to her on March 27 to ask for an investigation into the Trump administration’s intention to dissolve the department and warning that the cuts could have “disastrous consequences.”  

The department’s Office of Inspector General confirmed Thursday that it had responded to the senators but declined to provide further comment.

In the department’s letter to the senators, which was sent Wednesday to the senators and viewed by NBC News, Rocque wrote that the office would conduct “a series of reviews to provide information on the Department’s programs and operations following recent workforce changes.” She said in the letter that she hoped to report on her office’s progress this summer and that she would share results of the reviews with the senators. 

She also wrote that her staff would conduct reviews of selected offices in the department to identify the effects of staffing cuts, and their reports would include suggestions to “help ensure productive and efficient operations” following the workforce changes. 

The Office of Inspector General is an independent entity within the Education Department that is tasked with identifying fraud and criminal activity involving department funds and operations. The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the office’s plans to conduct reviews into the mass layoffs. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, one of the Democrats who had asked for an investigation, said she was pleased with the office’s decision. The senators had asked for an evaluation of the financial feasibility of state and local governments taking over education funding and for an analysis of the possible far-reaching effects of dismantling the Education Department. 

“I called for an independent investigation into Donald Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education after hearing from parents, teachers, and students about the chaos he unleashed,” Warren, who has launched a campaign called “Save Our Schools” to defend public education, said in a statement to NBC News. “This investigation will help reveal what’s at stake for those families.” 

The National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, called the reviews “a positive first step,” though the group’s president, Becky Pringle, said in a statement that she believed “Congress and the courts need to step in.” 

“Firing — without cause — nearly half of the Department of Education staff means those who ensure students can access educational opportunities without discrimination are no longer able to help,” she said in a statement to NBC News. “The dedicated public servants who helped families navigating the federal student aid process, ensured colleges provided the programs they advertised, and that loan servers did not improperly profit off students are gone. And the experts who track student achievement are no longer there to do their jobs.”