Trump administration says Harvard violated federal civil rights law in treatment of Jewish students

Washington — The Trump administration informed Harvard University on Monday that it found the elite school violated federal civil rights law through its treatment of Jewish and Israeli students on campus and warned that a failure by the university to enact certain changes “immediately” would put at risk its federal financial resources. 

Top Trump administration officials at the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, and Education, as well as the General Services Administration, notified Harvard of the findings of an investigation into alleged antisemitism at the school and concluded that it is in “violent violation” of a provision of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs that receive federal assistance.

“Harvard’s commitment to racial hierarchies — where individuals are sorted and judged according to their membership in an oppressed group identity and not individual merit — has enabled anti-Semitism to fester on Harvard’s campus and has led a once great institution to humiliation, offering remedial math and forcing Jewish students to hide their identities and ancestral stories,” the administration officials, which make up the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, wrote.

They warned that a failure to “institute adequate changes immediately” would lead to a loss of federal financial resources to Harvard and “continue to affect” the university’s relationship with the federal government.

The Trump administration has been engaged in an ongoing battle with Harvard, freezing billions of dollars in grants and contracts to the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school and revoking its ability to enroll foreign students. Harvard has sued the administration over its efforts, and a federal judge temporarily blocked the moves related to international students. President Trump has also threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

This is a developing story and will be updated

Weijia Jiang

contributed to this report.