The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened two investigations into Harvard that it describes as new, the department announced in a press release on March 23.
According to the press release, one line of inquiry will seek to determine “whether Harvard continues to use illegal race-based preferences in admissions despite the Supreme Court’s definitive ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard”—a 2023 decision that banned the consideration of race in admissions decisions.
The second inquiry will examine “alleged ongoing antisemitic harassment on Harvard’s campus and the institution’s purported failure to protect Jewish students.” It echoes a joint investigation into alleged antisemitism launched in March 2025 by the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration.
“The Trump Administration will evaluate both complaints and, if continued discrimination is found, take action to hold Harvard accountable for any illegal policies or actions,” the education department statement says.
In a statement this week, a Harvard spokesperson said, “We are reviewing the U.S. Department of Education’s latest actions, which represent the government’s latest retaliatory actions against Harvard for its refusal to surrender our independence and constitutional rights.”
The Office for Civil Rights also issued a “letter of impending enforcement action” to Harvard on March 23 alleging that Harvard has not provided “requested information relating to its admissions process.” The government filed a court complaint against the University in February seeking “applicant-level data” including information about applicants’ race and ethnicity, the demographics of their high schools and zip codes, grade-point averages, recruited athlete status, employment history, financial aid offerings, interviewer ratings, and internal ratings.
Some legal observers have noted that, because the requested data involves personally identifiable information, sharing it might violate federal privacy laws.
After the Students for Fair Admissions ruling in 2023, Harvard changed its practices to ensure that the admissions office doesn’t consider, look at, or review the racial and ethnic composition of the applying class until the admissions cycle is complete. Demographic data describing the newly admitted class is released only after the start of the new academic year. University admissions practices have never been found to be out of compliance with existing law.
“Harvard continues to comply with the law in its admissions practices, including the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin including shared ancestry,” the University spokesperson said in this week’s statement. “Harvard continues to engage with federal agencies in good faith and to provide information consistent with our legal obligations and institutional responsibilities.”
The University spokesperson also said that “Harvard is firmly committed to confronting antisemitism, following the law, and ensuring that our Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and staff are supported, safe, and fully included in campus life.”
In the year since the government opened its first inquiry into antisemitism on campus, Harvard has taken a number of steps to improve campus culture, including creating new course offerings on Jewish culture and history, instituting training against antisemitism, clarifying rules on protest and dissent, and making dramatic changes to programs some have accused of antisemitism and anti-Israel bias.
