Harvard Under New Federal Inquiries on Alleged Persistent Discrimination on Campus

The names of the complainants and specific details of the new probes remain unknown.

Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on June 8, 2025. Learner Liu/The Epoch Times

The Trump administration has launched two new probes into Harvard University after allegations of persistent discrimination on campus.

“Harvard University should know better,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a statement Monday. “Its name will always be tied to the landmark Supreme Court case that found sweeping racial discrimination in admissions, and the campus has been in the spotlight for tolerating egregious antisemitic harassment for years now.”

She said the department’s Office for Civil Rights will investigate thoroughly.

“No one—not even Harvard—is above the law. If Harvard continues to stonewall as we try to verify its basic compliance with antidiscrimination statutes, we will vigorously hold them to account to ensure students’ rights are protected.”

The investigations follow complaints claiming that Harvard’s campus remains a hostile environment, with ongoing harassment and discrimination, especially in the context of antisemitic incidents that have continued since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel, and Israel’s retaliation.

The names of the complainants and specific details of the new probes remain unknown.

Harvard did not immediately return The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

The Ivy League university has been at the center of broader federal efforts to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in programs receiving federal funds. Dozens of universities have undergone federal review for similar issues.

The Trump administration on March 20 sued Harvard University, accusing the school of allowing anti-Semitic discrimination and demonstrations.

“Harvard fostered and continues to foster a campus climate where hostile antisemitism and anti-Israeli conduct thrives,” the 44-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, states.

The filing points to how Jewish students have said they were denied access to educational facilities by demonstrators, concealed yarmulkes, and took other actions to avoid harassment and physical assaults. It alleges Harvard has not enforced its rules or disciplined individuals who terrorized students.

In a March 20 statement published in Harvard Magazine last week, the university said: “Harvard cares deeply about members of our Jewish and Israeli community and remains committed to ensuring they are embraced, respected, and can thrive on our campus. ... [Harvard has taken] substantive, proactive steps to address the root causes of antisemitism and actively enforces anti-harassment and anti-discrimination rules and policies on campus.”

The new probes also came after the university had defended its policies while vowing redoubled efforts to combat discrimination.

In March 2025, the Office for Civil Rights sent warnings to 60 universities, including Harvard, in an effort to ensure they provide uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities for Jewish students.

“The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better,” McMahon said at the time.

Other agencies have echoed findings by the Office for Civil Rights. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2025 found that Harvard was in violation of Title VI as a result of  “deliberate indifference” to antisemitic discrimination and harassment.

The federal task forces scrutinized Harvard’s contracts and grants, which amount to billions of dollars, as part of the investigation. The Trump administration attempted to withhold funds or require that the university make structural changes.

The government in 2025 froze $2.2 billion in federal money to the university after the school declined conditions the administration set forth to avoid a freeze.

Harvard sued, and U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled in favor of the university. She said that the freeze violated the U.S. Constitution.

“Defendants and the President are right to combat antisemitism and to use all lawful means to do so. Harvard was wrong to tolerate hateful behavior for as long as it did,” Burroughs wrote at the time.

“The record here, however, does not reflect that fighting antisemitism was Defendants’ true aim in acting against Harvard and, even if it were, combatting antisemitism cannot be accomplished on the back of the First Amendment.”

Harvard has also faced investigations into race-based practices in its admissions process and in the operation of the Harvard Law Review.

For instance, federal officials probed claims that the publication employed “race-based criteria” for membership and article selection, in violation of Title VI.

Harvard has made public internal reviews addressing antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents and said it is in compliance with federal civil rights laws, while working to foster an inclusive campus.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.