\n<\/p>\n
Harvard president Alan Garber at commencement.<\/p>\n
Libby O’Neill\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
In the latest volley in the Trump administration\u2019s war with Harvard University, federal agencies told Harvard\u2019s accreditor the university is violating antidiscrimination laws, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement will subpoena Harvard\u2019s \u201crecords, communications, and other documents relevant to the enforcement of immigration laws since January\u00a01, 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security announced these moves Wednesday in news releases replete with condemnations from cabinet officials. The pressure comes as Harvard still refuses to bow to all of the Trump administration\u2019s demands from April, which include banning admission of international students \u201chostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including students supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism.\u201d In May, DHS tried to stop Harvard from enrolling international students by stripping it of its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, but a judge has blocked that move. <\/p>\n
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a Wednesday statement, \u201cBy allowing antisemitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers. The Department of Education expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices.\u201d (Only the accreditor can find a college in violation of its policies.)<\/p>\n
Trump officials said last week that Harvard is violating Title\u00a0VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on shared ancestry, including antisemitism. They notified that accrediting agency of the HHS Office for Civil Rights\u2019 finding that Harvard is displaying \u201cdeliberate indifference\u201d to discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students.<\/p>\n
HHS\u2019s Notice of Violation said multiple sources \u201cpresent a grim reality of on-campus discrimination that is pervasive, persistent, and effectively unpunished.\u201d Wednesday\u2019s release from HHS said the investigation grew from a review of Harvard Medical School \u201cbased on reports of antisemitic incidents during its 2024 commencement ceremony,\u201d into a review of the whole institution from Oct.\u00a07, 2023, through the present. <\/p>\n
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that \u201cwhen an institution\u2014no matter how prestigious\u2014abandons its mission and fails to protect its students, it forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold. HHS and the Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration also notified Columbia University\u2019s accreditor after it concluded Columbia committed a similar violation of federal civil rights law. The accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, then told Columbia that its accreditation could be in jeopardy.<\/p>\n
DHS\u2019s subpoena announcement is the latest move in its targeting of Harvard over its international students, who comprise more than a quarter of its enrollment. <\/p>\n
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a release, \u201cWe tried to do things the easy way with Harvard. Now, through their refusal to cooperate, we have to do things the hard way. Harvard, like other universities, has allowed foreign students to abuse their visa privileges and advocate for violence and terrorism on campus.\u201d <\/p>\n
DHS didn\u2019t provide Inside Higher Ed<\/em> information on what specific records ICE is subpoenaing. It said in its release that \u201cthis comes after the university repeatedly refused past non-coercive requests to hand over the required information for its Student Visitor and Exchange Program [sic<\/em>] certification.\u201d <\/p>\n The release said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem \u201cdemanded Harvard provide information about the criminality and misconduct of foreign students on its campus\u201d back in April. The release further said that other universities \u201cshould take note of Harvard\u2019s actions, and the repercussions, when considering whether or not to comply with similar requests.\u201d<\/p>\n Harvard pushed back in statements of its own Wednesday. It called the DHS subpoenas \u201cunwarranted\u201d but said it \u201cwill continue to cooperate with lawful requests and obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration\u2019s ongoing retaliatory actions come as Harvard continues to defend itself and its students, faculty, and staff against harmful government overreach aimed at dictating whom private universities can admit and hire, and what they can teach,\u201d one Harvard statement said. \u201cHarvard remains unwavering in its efforts to protect its community and its core principles against unfounded retribution by the federal government.\u201d <\/p>\n If Harvard were to lose its accreditation, it would be cut off from federal student aid. In another statement, Harvard officials say they are complying with the New England Commission of Higher Education\u2019s standards \u201cmaintaining its accreditation uninterrupted since its initial review in 1929.\u201d <\/p>\n Neither the Trump administration nor Larry Schall, president of NECHE, provided the letter the administration wrote to the commission. Schall told Inside Higher Ed<\/em> the commission will request a response from Harvard within 30 days and that, plus the results of the federal investigation, will be presented to the commission at its next regularly scheduled meeting, currently set for September. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have processes we follow,\u201d Schall said. \u201cWe follow them whether it\u2019s Harvard or some other institution\u00a0\u2026 Our processes are consistent and actually directed by federal regulation.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Harvard president Alan Garber at commencement. Libby O’Neill\/Getty Images In the latest volley in the Trump administration\u2019s war with Harvard University, federal agencies told Harvard\u2019s accreditor the university is violating antidiscrimination laws, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement will subpoena Harvard\u2019s \u201crecords, communications, and other documents relevant to the enforcement of immigration laws since January\u00a01, 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[3283,3281,258,3282,251,393,1741],"class_list":{"0":"post-10354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-accreditation","9":"tag-feds","10":"tag-foreign","11":"tag-harvards","12":"tag-records","13":"tag-student","14":"tag-target"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}