Trump administration demands Harvard end DEI, ban masks at protests to keep federal funding

The Trump administration is pressuring Harvard University to end DEI programs and ban masks at protests in order to keep its billions of dollars in federal funding.

Officials from the U.S. Department of Education, Health and Human Services, and General Services Administration have laid out the list of demands in a letter to the Cambridge school. These demands come a few days after the Trump administration said it will review more than $8.7 billion in multi-year grant commitments to Harvard University and its affiliates amid an antisemitism investigation.

“Harvard University, however, has fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment in addition to other alleged violations of Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” the federal officials wrote in the demand letter.

“This letter outlines immediate next steps that we regard as necessary for Harvard University’s continued financial relationship with the United States government,” the officials added.

The feds in the letter called on Harvard to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs.

“DEI programs teach students, faculty, staff, and leadership to make snap judgments about each other based on crude race and identity stereotypes, which fuels division and hatred based on race, color, national origin, and other protected identity characteristics,” the officials wrote. “All efforts should be made to shutter such programs.”

The feds said Harvard must implement merit-based admissions policies, and end all preferences based on race, color, or national origin in admissions. Harvard must implement merit-based hiring policies, the feds added.

Harvard must also “commit to full cooperation with DHS (Homeland Security) and other federal regulators,” according to the letter.

The feds said the university needs to make changes with “oversight and accountability for biased programs that fuel antisemitism.”

“Programs and departments that fuel antisemitic harassment must be reviewed and necessary changes made to address bias, improve viewpoint diversity, and end ideological capture,” the officials wrote.

Other demanded reforms include a comprehensive mask ban for protests (with medical and religious exemptions, given identification is always displayed), and a clarified time, place, and manner policy for protests.

“Harvard must review and report on disciplinary actions for antisemitic rule violations since October 7, 2023,” the feds wrote.

Harvard received the letter from the federal task force Thursday afternoon, according to a Harvard spokesperson.

The university earlier this week received notification of “a comprehensive review of federal contracts and grants at Harvard University and its affiliates.”

After that review notification came in, Harvard President Alan Garber sent a message to the community setting out the university’s dedication to tackling antisemitism, and the steps it has taken — and Harvard’s commitment to the values of academic freedom and excellence in its teaching and research mission.

“If this funding is stopped, it will halt life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation,” Garber wrote to the community. “The government has informed us that they are considering this action because they are concerned that the University has not fulfilled its obligations to curb and combat antisemitic harassment.

“We fully embrace the important goal of combatting antisemitism, one of the most insidious forms of bigotry,” the president added. “Urgent action and deep resolve are needed to address this serious problem that is growing across America and around the world. It is present on our campus.”

Garber noted that for the past 15 months, the university has “devoted considerable effort to addressing antisemitism.”

That includes the campus: strengthening rules and its approach to disciplining those who violate them; enhancing training and education on antisemitism across the campus; launching programs to promote civil dialogue and respectful disagreement inside and outside the classroom; and adopting many other reforms.

“We still have much work to do,” Garber added. “We will engage with members of the federal government’s task force to combat antisemitism to ensure that they have a full account of the work we have done and the actions we will take going forward to combat antisemitism.”

------------