The Health and Human Services Department on Monday started the process for blocking Harvard University from receiving future research grants, three months after finding that the university violated civil rights law by failing to address the harassment of Jewish students on campus.
Debarment is the government’s formal way of blacklisting contractors. Monday’s announcement that the Trump administration was initiating the debarment process represented a shift from May, when Education Secretary Linda McMahon issued a letter that simply disqualified Harvard from future federal funding.
With this move, the administration is increasing pressure on Harvard at a time when the White House and university leaders have struggled to negotiate a settlement to their monthslong dispute over the administration’s campaign to expunge “woke” ideology from college campuses.
Harvard declined to comment on the move on Monday.
The health department’s initial findings that Harvard failed to adequately address antisemitism on campus were disputed by Harvard, which has argued that the university has taken significant steps to address the problem. Judge Allison D. Burroughs of Federal District Court in Boston sided with Harvard, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, when she ruled earlier this month that the administration had broken the law by freezing billions in research dollars in the name of stamping out antisemitism. She left open the possibility that the government could seek to use its “constitutional, statutory or regulatory authority” to try to challenge Harvard again.
The Trump administration is expected to appeal that ruling.
The health department’s investigation into antisemitism earlier this summer relied largely on a report from the university’s antisemitism task force that detailed anecdotes of reported antisemitism — along with examples of changes that campus leaders were implementing to address the issues.
The health department referred its findings to the Justice Department, which has not taken any public action on the report.
Alan Blinder contributed reporting.
Michael C. Bender is a Times correspondent in Washington.
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