The US government intensified its fight against Harvard University on Wednesday with a subpoena to gather information about foreign students. The Department of Homeland Security also criticised the Ivy League university for its “refusal to cooperate” with previous information requests. President Donald Trump has waged an elaborate battle against Harvard over the past few months — freezing billions in funding and threatening to revoke its tax-exempt status. The developments came days after the US administration concluded that Harvard had failed to protect Jewish students after an investigation.
According to reports, various departments under the Trump administration have already notified the New England Commission of Higher Education that Harvard may be in violation of anti-discrimination laws. It has also been accused of failing to meet the accreditation standards of the commission. The Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services cited antisemitism on campus during pro-Palestinian protests after the start of the Israel-Hamas war to underscore its point.
The Trump administration concluded last week after an investigation that Harvard University failed to protect Jewish students from harassment — threatening to cut all federal funding from the Ivy League school if it fails to take action. A federal task force sent a letter to Harvard last week, finding the university violated civil rights laws requiring colleges to protect students from discrimination based on race or national origin. It says investigators found Harvard was at times a “willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff” and that campus leaders allowed antisemitism to fester on the campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.