The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has found Harvard University in violation of federal law over its handling of antisemitic protests and activity on campus following the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack in Israel perpetrated by Hamas, putting hundreds of millions in federal funding at risk.
Following an investigation by the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, the HHS Civil Rights Office has found the Massachusetts-based institution of higher learning in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to a statement released on Monday.
Title VI prohibits institutions that receive federal funding from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin in their programs and activities.
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Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon and other Trump administration officials wrote a letter to Harvard University President Alan Garber on Monday, informing him that the investigation has concluded and that the institution was in “violent violation” of federal law.
“Jewish and Israeli students were assaulted and spit on; they hid their kippahs for fear of being harassed and concealed their Jewish identity from classmates for fear of ostracization,” the letter stated. “Images were widely circulated among the Harvard community that trafficked in obvious anti-Semitic tropes, including one that showed a dollar sign inside a Star of David. The campus was vandalized with anti-Semitic stickers, including one that showed the Israeli flag with a swastika in place of the Star of David.”
The letter listed various “findings of fact” determining 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.”
“The majority of Jewish students reported experiencing negative bias or discrimination on campus, while a quarter felt physically unsafe,” the letter claimed.
The letter alleged that demonstrators “flagrantly violated” the university’s rules of conduct, which included “calls for genocide and murder.” The demonstrators also denied Israeli students access to portions of the campus. The Trump administration asserts that “an impermissible, multiweek encampment … instilled fear in, and disrupted the studies of, Jewish and Israeli students.”
“Even worse, individuals who participated in the encampment received lax and inconsistent discipline — and as the discipline was reviewed by higher levels among the faculty, it was often downgraded. By the end of the process, even accounting only for the students that were charged, only a fraction received some sort of discipline, and none were suspended. A member of Harvard’s own leadership called the disciplinary process ‘not fair’ and ‘not right.'”
The administration warned that failure by Harvard to make “adequate changes immediately” will result in “the loss of all federal financial resources” and “affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government.”
In response, Harvard’s lawyers submitted a memo to the court on Monday as part of a lawsuit filed in April, claiming that the administration didn’t conduct a thorough investigation into the claims.
“The administrative record does not document any meaningful investigation by the Government into antisemitism on Harvard’s campus,” the university’s lawyers argue. “Today’s action necessarily concedes that the Government can use the Title VI process; it just deliberately chose to ignore it in its rush to inflict pain and punishment upon Harvard.”
Harvard and its subrecipients received $794 million in federal funding from fiscal year 2023 through fiscal year 2025.
“Harvard’s public pledges to improve its disciplinary framework for harassment and misconduct are inadequate to meaningfully address these serious findings,” said HHS Office of Civil Rights Director Paula Stannard. “HHS stands ready to reengage in productive discussions with Harvard to reach resolution on the corrective action that Harvard can take to remedy the violations and come into compliance with its Title VI obligations.”
HHS’ determination marks the latest development in an adversarial relationship between the Trump administration and the Ivy League school.
Earlier this year, Harvard filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after the U.S. Department of Education announced a $2 billion federal funding freeze after the institution declined to comply with its demands to implement merit-based hiring and admissions policies and abolish “all preferences based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Harvard maintained that the demands violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
