The Trump administration has found Harvard to be in “violent violation” of the Civil Rights Act.
The administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism found the university mistreated its Jewish and Israeli students following an investigation into its compliance with the Civil Rights Act, according to a letter sent to Harvard president Alan Garber on Monday.
The letter, which was obtained by The Wall Street Journal, indicated that the task force had found that the school “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.”
The task force claimed that Harvard violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, “which prohibits discrimination against or otherwise excluding individuals on the basis of race, color, or national origin.”
The “notice of violation” tees up the Department of Justice to file a lawsuit, though similar findings during other presidential administrations usually ended with a negotiated resolution. The finding puts Harvard at further financial risk after President Donald Trump cancelled $3 billion in grants to the university.
The letter cited images with “obvious anti-Semitic tropes” circulating among students and faculty, Jewish and Israeli students being “assaulted and spit on,” and the pro-Palestine encampment in April 2024, which it said “instilled fear in, and disrupted the studies of, Jewish and Israeli students.”
“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 letter said.
“Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again,” it continued.
This news comes a week after Trump made a surprise announcement on Truth Social that he may soon be mending ties with the institution.
He claimed that his administration had been “looking for a solution” to Harvard’s “largescale improprieties” but that “it is very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so.”
“They have acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right,” he wrote. “If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.”
That same day, a federal judge also indefinitely blocked the administration from revoking the university’s ability to accept and host international scholars and students.
Harvard has been in hot water ever since it refused to bend the knee to the Trump administration’s demands in April, which included allowing federal-government oversight of the admissions and staff hiring process.
It is currently embroiled in two lawsuits against the administration, one regarding the school’s ability to host international students and the other regarding the administration’s attempt to freeze its federal funding.
Trump has frozen more than $3 billion in funding for the institution and has threatened to withhold an additional $3 billion as well as cancel its federal contracts with the university, which total around $100 million.
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