The Trump Administration Steps Up Attacks on Harvard Again

Just over two weeks ago there were signs that some kind of deal with Harvard was getting close. The Trump administration had Harvard had been negotiating behind the scenes and it appeared the sticking point for Harvard (or one of them) was that they didn’t want to be seen capitulating. The question was how they could give in without ruining their own resistance credibility.

It appears that yesterday the Trump administration’s patience ran out.

The Department of Homeland Security subpoenaed Harvard on Wednesday, demanding documents related to alleged misconduct by international students and the school’s compliance with federal immigration law.

The administrative subpoena, issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, compels Harvard to produce records, communications, and other documents related to the enforcement of immigration laws dating back to January 1, 2020.

“We tried to do things the easy way with Harvard,” wrote DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement. “Now, through their refusal to cooperate, we have to do things the hard way.”

“If Harvard won’t defend the interests of its students, then we will,” she added.

And that wasn’t all. The Trump administration also sent a letter to Harvard’s accreditor.

The Trump administration notified Harvard’s accreditor on Wednesday that the University is in violation of federal civil rights law and suggested that there was “strong evidence” that its accreditation should be revoked.

The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services sent the notification to the New England Commission of Higher Education a week after the HHS formally found that Harvard had violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by permitting discrimination against Jewish students.

“The Department of Education expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards,” wrote Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

This is the same approach the administration took toward Columbia University just over a month ago. Columbia subsequently got a warning letter from the accreditor saying their status “may be in jeopardy.” Columbia now has until November to produce a report proving they are in compliance.

Finally, there’s also some indication that Harvard was aware they needed to show some signs of progress/compliance. Yesterday the school “dismantled” some diversity offices.

The dismantling of Harvard’s diversity offices arrived at Harvard College on Wednesday as websites for centers serving minority students, LGBTQ students, and women disappeared suddenly and without fanfare.

The quiet removals came as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences — which houses the College, Harvard’s undergraduate school — announced internally on Wednesday afternoon that it would shutter its diversity office and replace it with an Office for Academic Culture and Community.

The same afternoon, web pages belonging to the Harvard College Women’s Center, Office for BGLTQ Student Life, and Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations were taken down. Links to the centers’ sites now redirect to a nearly empty web page for an Office of Culture and Community within the College’s Dean of Students Office.

Back in April the school had renamed its central Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging to something less DEI sounding, but those changes didn’t affect the offices at Harvard College.

Of course it’s a fair question whether any of this means anything. Many schools have rebranded their DEI offices without changing the staff. And changes to websites that can be made in a day can also be undone in a day at some future date when a different administration is in office. In any case it looks like this is not over yet and may not be for a few more months.