The push for Harvard to tap into its $53 billion endowment is mounting as the Trump administration escalates its financial assault on the university.

But on multiple fronts, that move would be more difficult than many people realize. Some 80 percent of the money is legally obligated towards certain uses.

Experts say tapping into the fortune is a measure of last resort, though some argue Harvard is at that point.

A university endowment is made up of sometimes thousands of accounts from different donors, many of them specifying they want their money to go towards specific aspects of the institution, such as a sports team or funding a particular professorship in the economics department.

“It's not like a bank account, [...] The idea is that you'll have it sort of forever so that you can take income from it and fund some activity, but you could do that forever. So not just for students today, but for students in the future,” said Sandy Baum, a nonresident senior fellow at the Urban Institute.

The first move Harvard could make is to call up donors........

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