Chicago – July 01, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration said on Monday that an investigation had concluded Harvard University violated federal civil rights law for failing to address harassment of Jewish and Israeli students, though critics and some faculty say such probes are a pretext to assert federal control over schools.
The announcement could lay the groundwork for further action against the school, which has already seen billions of dollars in grant money frozen by the administration as part of a broader campaign against Harvard and other universities across the country. Universities have said Trump’s actions threaten academic freedom and free speech, as well as critical scientific research.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights accused Harvard of “deliberate indifference” toward discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students, according to a notice from the administration.
The department outlined a series of harassment incidents and faulted Harvard’s response for being “too little, too late.”
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources,” lawyers for the administration wrote in a separate letter to Harvard President Alan Garber that was viewed by Reuters. The result of the probe was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
