Harvard has been fighting against the Trump administration on multiple fronts. Not only has the government frozen billions of dollars in funding that could have gone to the school, it also wants to prevent Harvard from hosting and teaching international students. As if those weren’t enough, the school is also being accused of fostering antisemitism. That was grounds for revoking Columbia’s accreditation status — now, Harvard may be forced to negotiate with the administration to avoid a similar fate. New York Times has coverage:
The Trump administration said Monday that Harvard University violated federal civil rights law by failing to address the harassment of Jewish students on campus, increasing the pressure on the Ivy League school as it negotiates a possible settlement with the White House.
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In their letter, the Trump administration officials said that Harvard’s “commitment to racial hierarchies” had “enabled antisemitism to fester” at the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university. They warned that not making “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 “adequate changes” here should probably be read as “break your back bending over backward to make us happy.” Whatever “solutions” Harvard could come up with to address the antisemitism accusations would still have to work within the “global equity and inclusion is bad” framework Trump & Co. are holding everyone to. It isn’t like Harvard could prove their commitment to challenging the harassment of Jewish students on campus by actively recruiting Jewish faculty or students — that’s affirmative action. Maybe devote funding to a Harvard Jewish affinity group that would let them cover the costs of consciousness raising on campus? Not likely: a consequence of Trump’s anti-DEI purge is that everyone is doing their best to disband affinity groups to avoid his displeasure. What if Harvard wanted to “develop a faculty panel that would investigate and discipline people in connection with certain accusations of misconduct”? Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services Paula M. Stannard hand-waved it as being too little too late.
Whatever that magical solution would be, it looks like negotiations are underway:
“Acting extremely appropriately” reads a lot more Paul, Weiss than it does Perkins Coie. Between pulling funding and nixing Harvard’s accreditation like they did with Columbia, Trump has some high-powered cards in his hands. Harvard’s “negotiation” could look a lot more like folding very shortly.
Trump Administration Finds Harvard Violated Civil Rights Law [New York Times]
Earlier: So Much For Free Speech: Harvard Law Students Punished For Reading Together At Campus Library
Harvard Doubles Down On ‘Protest’ Retaliation & Punishes Teachers For Studying In Library
Harvard Triples Down On Punishing Campus Free Speech, Adds Prayer To No-No List
Harvard Law Students Vote To Divest From Israel
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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