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Federal investigation finds Harvard violated civil rights law

A Harvard sign is seen at Harvard University's campus in May.
Rick Friedman
/
AFP via Getty Images
A Harvard sign is seen at Harvard University's campus in May.

The Trump administration has issued a notice of violation accusing Harvard University of "deliberate indifference" toward Jewish and Israeli students.

A Trump administration investigation has found that Harvard University violated federal civil rights law by failing to protect Jewish students on campus. The finding puts the school at risk of losing additional federal funding.

In a separate letter to the university summarizing the investigation's findings, said, "Harvard has been in some cases deliberately indifferent, and in others has been a willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff."

It is the latest in a battle between the federal government and the world's wealthiest university.

In a statement a Harvard spokesperson said, "Harvard is far from indifferent on this issue and strongly disagrees with the government's findings."

The university says it has to better protect against antisemitism and support Jewish students on campus.

"We remain committed to ensuring members of our Jewish and Israeli community are embraced, respected, and can thrive at Harvard," the statement said.

The investigation was completed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights, and it says occurred on the Cambridge, Mass., campus since Oct. 7, 2023.

"OCR finds that specific and repeated examples uncovered during our investigation establish a pattern of unlawful and unchecked discrimination at Harvard," the report says.

Earlier this year Harvard created its antisemitism on campus, and many examples and quotes from that report were cited in the federal OCR review.

Harvard has already had canceled or frozen and is currently suing the administration. A hearing for that trial is .

Copyright 2025 NPR

Elissa Nadworny
Elissa Nadworny reports on all things college for NPR, following big stories like unprecedented enrollment declines, college affordability, the student debt crisis and workforce training. During the 2020-2021 academic year, she traveled to dozens of campuses to document what it was like to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. Her work has won several awards including a 2020 Gracie Award for a story about student parents in college, a 2018 James Beard Award for a story about the Chinese-American population in the Mississippi Delta and a 2017 Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in innovation.
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