Harvard Abruptly Caves to Trump After Months of Fighting
Harvard just quietly dismantled its undergraduate school’s offices for diversity, equity, and inclusion amid the university’s ongoing battle with Donald Trump’s administration.
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which houses Harvard College, announced internally Wednesday that it would shutter its diversity office and replace it with the “Office for Academic Culture and Community,” according to The Harvard Crimson.
The sudden concession came the same day that Trump’s departments of Education and Health and Human Services went to Harvard University’s accreditor claiming that there was “strong evidence to suggest the school may no longer meet” accreditation standards. If the accreditor agreed, that would mean the school would lose access to federal student aid.
At the same time, several webpages for the university’s affinity organizations were removed, including the Harvard College Women’s Center, Office for BGLTQ Student Life, and Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations.
The sites now link to an empty page for the Office of Academic Culture and Community with a milquetoast statement boasting the importance of “community values.”
“Exposure to and learning from different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences leads to intellectual and personal growth, and the betterment of the University,” said the statement.
These changes represent a sizable victory in the president’s culture war against the elite university over the presence of pro-Palestinian protesters on its campus. In April, Harvard renamed its Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging to the “Community and Campus Life” office.
Last month, the Department of Justice task force to combat antisemitism formally accused Harvard of violating Title IV, and threatened to revoke all federal funding to the university. The notice came amid ongoing negotiations in a bitter legal battle between Harvard and the Trump administration over allegations of antisemitism.
