The HHS Office for Civil Rights has referred Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University for suspension and debarment proceedings. The move could ultimately bar the university from receiving future funding from any federal agency.
The referral follows a finding from OCR that Harvard failed to adequately respond to antisemitic harassment against Jewish and Israeli students on its campus since Oct. 7, 2023, which the agency said amounted to “deliberate indifference,” according to a Sept. 29 news release.
The action also initiates HHS’ suspension and debarment process, which allows the government to exclude entities from federal contracts and grants when their conduct is deemed contrary to the public interest.
Harvard has 20 days to request a formal administrative hearing to respond to the civil rights allegations, HHS said in the release. In recent months, the university has outlined actions taken to improve campus culture and address antisemitic harassment.
Becker’s has reached out to Harvard and will update the report as more information becomes available.
Three more notes:
- The action marks the latest in the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on Harvard, which intensified in April after the university rejected a wide-ranging set of federal demands that were presented as conditions for federal funding.
Those demands included a halt to all diversity, equity and inclusion programs, governance reforms, and “viewpoint diversity” audits of students, faculty and staff. After Harvard declined to implement the changes, federal officials froze more than $2 billion in multiyear research grants and contracts, which led to disruptions on federally funded medical research projects. - On Sept. 3, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that the government’s grant terminations violated the First Amendment. In the ruling, the judge wrote that the administration used antisemitism as a pretext for ideologically motivated action against the university. The Trump administration has said it plans to appeal the decision.
- University administrators recently instructed Harvard Medical School to cut research spending by at least 20% by the end of the fiscal year as the school navigates steep federal funding cuts. During a Sept. 17 annual address, medical school dean George Daley, MD, PhD, said the school is on track to meet that target.
To keep essential research and training programs afloat for the next fiscal year, the school has tapped emergency funds from the university and internal lab reserves. However, leaders have warned that continued federal cuts threaten to disrupt medical research advancements and breakthroughs in cancer care, infectious diseases and other areas.
