Trump Administration Accuses Harvard of Violating Civil Right Law

The Trump administration has accused Harvard University of breaking federal civil rights law in its treatment of Jewish and Israeli students. 

A letter to Harvard President Alan Garber from the Joint Task Force to Curb Anti-Semitism declared the university had “violent violation” of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

The Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services found that “Harvard has been in some cases deliberately indifferent, and in others has been a willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff”. 

It was also stated that Jewish and Israeli students were “assaulted and spit on” while antisemitic vandals defaced the campus while enduring harassment including “calls for genocide and murder” and creating a “multiweek encampment that instilled fear in, and disrupted the studies of, Jewish and Israeli students”.

Harvard have strongly disagreed with the findings. A statement from a Harvard spokesperson said it “strongly disagrees with the government’s findings” and is “far from indifferent on this issue” of antisemitism and claim it has taken “substantive, proactive steps to address the mechanisms of antisemitism” and point to stronger policies, disciplined violators, and updated campus protest rules.

It adds that the university remains “committed to ensuring members of our Jewish and Israeli community are embraced, respected, and can thrive at Harvard.”

The Trump administration have threatened that “failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government”.

The investigation stands as the second completed OCR probe under the Trump administration that considers civil rights liability for race and national origin discrimination.

The Trump administration already slashed more than $2 billion in federal research funding to Harvard and attempted to prevent the institution from enrolling international students.

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