Trump administration launches more probes into Harvard
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The probes into Harvard University were initiated over alleged anti-Semitism on campus and racially discriminatory admissions practices.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration said on March 23 it has initiated two new investigations into Harvard University over alleged anti-Semitism on campus and racially discriminatory admissions practices.
The inquiries, launched by the Department of Education’s civil rights division, are the latest effort from Washington to pressure the Ivy League university into reshaping its policies.
“If Harvard continues to stonewall as we try to verify its basic compliance with anti-discrimination statutes, we will vigorously hold them to account to ensure students’ rights are protected,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
If the university is found to be in violation of the law, the department can strip Harvard of its federal funding and render the college ineligible for federal financial aid – steps the administration has threatened in the past.
A Harvard spokesman, Mr Jason Newton, said in a statement that “we are reviewing the US 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”.
He also said that the university was committed to “following the law, and ensuring that our Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and staff are supported, safe, and fully included in campus life”.
The move comes just days after the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the college, accusing its leaders of ignoring anti-Semitic harassment on campus, and a month after the department sued the school over data to support its investigation of racial discrimination in admissions.
In its latest probe, the Education Department gave Harvard 20 days to hand over that data or face “enforcement actions”.
The Education Department’s probe similarly aims to extract admissions data from Harvard on applicants’ race, test scores and grades.
The Trump administration has demanded such data from every college in the country via an executive order – a mandate that will face scrutiny in federal district court on March 24.
The Education Department probes are an escalation of the White House’s efforts to bring the Ivy League school to heel after President Donald Trump, in a fiery social media post in early February, demanded US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion) from Harvard and accused college officials of “serious, heinous illegalities”. BLOOMBERG
