Trump Admin Finds Harvard Violated Federal Law, Floats Major Punishment

The Trump administration has warned Harvard it could lose all federal funding after the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism found the college is violating the Civil Rights Act.

“Harvard holds the regrettable distinction of being among the most prominent and visible breeding ground for race discrimination,” according to the letter sent to Harvard by the Trump administration.

“That legacy of discrimination persists with Harvard’s continued anti-Semitism. Any institution that refuses to meet its duties under federal law may not receive a wide range of federal privileges.”

The task force, representing the Department of Justice, General Services Administration, Department of Education, and Department of Health and Human Services said it concluded its investigation of anti-Semitism at Harvard.

“After a thorough investigation, HHS OCR finds that Harvard University is in violent violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin,” the letter to Harvard said.

The letter framed Harvard as having been “deliberately indifferent” in some instances and at other times “a willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff.”

The investigation found a majority of Jewish students “reported experiencing negative bias or discrimination on campus, while a quarter felt physically unsafe,” the letter said.

The letter noted as anti-Semitic images were widely circulated around the campus, Jewish students hid kippahs for fear of harassment and wrote that Jewish and Israeli students were spit on and otherwise assaulted.

The college allowed demonstrations that broke its own rules, including those with “calls for genocide and murder, and denied Jewish and Israeli students access to campus space,” the letter explained.

The letter claimed that discipline for breaking college rules was “lax and inconsistent.”

The letter noted that “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.”

“Harvard’s inaction in the face of these civil rights violations is a clear example of the demographic hierarchy that has taken hold of the University. Equal defense of the law demands that all groups, regardless of race or national origin, are protected,” the letter said.

“Harvard’s commitment to racial hierarchies — where individuals are sorted and judged according to their membership in an oppressed group identity and not individual merit — has enabled anti-Semitism to fester on Harvard’s campus and has led a once great institution to humiliation, offering remedial math and forcing Jewish students to hide their identities and ancestral stories.”

The letter said Harvard has one more chance.

“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government. Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again,” the letter said.

“Harvard’s public pledges to improve its disciplinary framework for harassment and misconduct are inadequate to meaningfully address these serious findings,” Director of the Office for Civil Rights at HHS Paula Stannard said in a news release.

“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,” she said in the release.

As noted by The Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration and Harvard have been grappling over a number of issues, including the college’s ability to enroll foreign students and its tax-exempt status.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump had indicated some progress was being made in discussions between his administration and Harvard.

“Many people have been asking what is going on with Harvard University and their largescale improprieties that we have been addressing, looking for a solution. We have been working closely with Harvard, and it is very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so,” Trump posted on on June 20.

“They have acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right. If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.”

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