The University announced Monday that it will rename its Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging the “Office for Community and Campus Life.” Hours later, the new office informed affinity groups via email that it would not host or fund affinity group Commencement celebrations this year, The Crimson reported. The changes come amid mounting pressure from the federal government to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in higher education.
Harvard made headlines in recent weeks for rejecting demands from the federal government related to Harvard’s internal affairs, including a call to eliminate DEI practices. After the Trump administration subsequently froze at least $2.2 billion in federal research funds, the University filed a lawsuit arguing that the freeze violates the First Amendment and established procedures for addressing campus civil rights violations, including antisemitism.
But the University’s latest moves suggest it may be aligning some of its policies with federal expectations, even as it fights the Trump administration in court, amid escalating pressure. On Monday, the Trump administration launched an investigation into the Harvard Law Review over allegations of race-based discrimination in the journal’s membership and article selection policies. And the funding cuts have already impacted University practices, with staff and faculty facing stop-work orders and a hiring freeze.
The renaming of the office is not the first apparent concession the University has made to the Trump administration. At the end of March, following the administration’s demand that Columbia University place its Middle Eastern studies programming under federal oversight, the Harvard School of Public Health suspended its research partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank. Shortly afterwards, Harvard dismissed the faculty directors of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies, which had faced criticism for alleged anti-Israel bias. That move was condemned by Harvard’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
The office’s new name and charge were announced in a University-wide email on Monday afternoon by Sherri Ann Charleston, who was appointed Harvard’s first chief diversity and inclusion officer in August 2020. She signed the email with a new title: “chief community and campus life officer.” As of Tuesday morning, the OEDIB website had not been updated to reflect the new name.
Charleston wrote that the new office’s focus would be on “[building] a culture of belonging,” encouraging engagement across difference, and supporting first-generation and low-income students. She said that the changes reflect the findings of a 2024 Pulse Survey, in which many students expressed feeling a sense of belonging, but fewer said they felt comfortable sharing their opinions or forming connections with those who hold different viewpoints. She wrote that the office must bring together “people of different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives” while “focusing on the unique experiences and contributions of the individual and not the broad demographic groups to which they belong.”
Charleston added that her office would “take steps to make this change concrete,” though she offered no details on what that work would entail. Harvard joins a number of universities across the country in either dismantling or reconfiguring their DEI offices.
