The Trump administration has concluded that Harvard University failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment and is threatening to cut all federal funding if immediate corrective action isn’t taken.
In a letter sent Monday, a federal task force found Harvard in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires schools to protect students from discrimination based on race or national origin, according to the Associated Press.
The investigators stated Harvard was at times a “willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff,” and allowed antisemitism to fester on its Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus.
“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,” the letter warned. The Associated Press obtained the letter, and The Wall Street Journal first reported it.
This development marks a sharp escalation in tensions between the Trump administration and Harvard, which has already lost more than $2.6 billion in federal research grants after rejecting government demands to reform hiring, admissions, and campus governance.
The administration has long criticized Harvard for tolerating antisemitism, but the formal finding opens the path for either a resolution agreement or the potential termination of all federal funds.
The investigation centered on campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war, citing a “multiweek encampment” that allegedly disrupted Jewish and Israeli students’ education and created an unsafe environment. Investigators said students involved in the protests faced inconsistent discipline, and none were suspended.
Harvard President Alan Garber previously acknowledged the presence of antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus. Following internal reports in April confirming such issues, he pledged new initiatives to address them.
“Harvard cannot — and will not — abide bigotry,” Garber stated.
Historically, Title VI violations have been resolved through voluntary agreements.
However, officials emphasized that this administration is adopting a more aggressive stance. It’s been decades since a university faced a full federal funding cutoff over civil rights violations.
