A new report highlights Harvard’s discrimination issues
With the Trump administration threatening to cut off its federal support, Harvard recently released its long-awaited internal report detailing rampant national-origin discrimination on campus – especially against Israelis and Jews. The administration claims that Harvard is rotten to the bone, hollowed out by ideological one-sidedness and an emphasis on social-justice activism rather than genuine inquiry. The university has countered that while it is working on rooting out discrimination, the administration has “overreached” to target the substance of what is studied and taught.
The report, prepared by the Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias, puts the prestigious university in a difficult position. Its leadership has never denied that it has a serious discrimination problem, which has been substantiated in multiple reports compiled by the Task Force, alumni groups, and lawmakers. Nearly a year ago, the Task Force recommended that Harvard take “substantive disciplinary action” against those contributing to the “dire” conditions for Israeli students, in particular. No disciplinary action has been taken. Instead, a Harvard Law student who was videoed assaulting an Israeli classmate recently received a $65,000 school-sponsored fellowship to work at the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Rather than expel the harassers and assaulters, Harvard has gone on the offensive. While admitting that it can improve its anti-discrimination efforts, it has accused the Trump administration of using antisemitism as an excuse to meddle with universities’ internal affairs. “No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” wrote Harvard President Alan Garber on April 14. The main Trump administration demands Garber rejected were “requirements to ‘audit’ the viewpoints of our student body, faculty, staff, and to ‘reduce the power’ of certain students, faculty, and administrators targeted because of their ideological views.”
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Tal Fortgang is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He was a 2023 Sapir Fellow.
Photo by Sophie Park/Getty Images
