By: Fern Sidman

In a dramatic escalation of the federal government’s campaign to combat antisemitism on college campuses, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee has launched a formal investigation into Harvard University’s compliance with civil rights law. As reported by The New York Post on Thursday, the inquiry comes in direct response to Harvard’s recent rejection of a proposed settlement from the Trump administration, which aimed to enforce sweeping reforms related to antisemitism, hiring practices, and diversity initiatives.

The inquiry, spearheaded by Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a Harvard College alumna, signals a new front in the GOP’s broader offensive against elite academic institutions accused of harboring discriminatory or extremist environments. In a forceful letter sent Thursday to newly installed Harvard President Alan Garber, Comer and Stefanik demanded comprehensive documentation to assess whether Harvard has complied with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in programs receiving federal funds.

“Harvard is apparently so unable or unwilling to prevent unlawful discrimination that the institution, at your direction, is refusing to enter into a reasonable settlement agreement proposed by federal officials intended to put Harvard back in compliance with the law,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter, quoted by The New York Post.

The investigation follows Harvard’s April 14 refusal to implement a series of reforms laid out by the Trump administration, which included dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, reforming departments with records of antisemitism or ideological bias, transitioning to merit-based hiring standards, and enforcing stronger screening of international applicants to block those with hostile views toward American values or connections to terrorist ideologies.

President Alan Garber, in rejecting the administration’s demands, argued that the proposed measures were an assault on institutional independence.

“No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Garber said, as reported by The New York Post.

The administration responded swiftly. As reported by The New York Post, President Trump froze $2.2 billion in federal grants and $60 million in federal contracts to Harvard, citing the university’s failure to protect Jewish students and uphold federal civil rights standards.

The president has also hinted at more drastic measures, including potentially stripping Harvard of its tax-exempt status, a move that would have devastating financial consequences for the Ivy League institution, which holds an endowment of over $53 billion.

“It should come as no surprise that Harvard would continue to advocate for illegal discrimination and violate its obligations under the law,” Comer and Stefanik charged in their letter. “As it has a long, consistent history of defending racial discrimination and antisemitic activities on campus.”

At the heart of the Oversight Committee’s probe is Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, a powerful federal mechanism that prohibits discrimination in programs receiving U.S. funding. Under the Trump administration, this statute is being leveraged to pressure universities to address rising antisemitism, especially after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.

The New York Post report noted that the document request issued to Harvard is sweeping in scope. By May 1, the university must turn over hiring and admissions policies, communications related to DEI programs, internal dialogue and public responses following the October 7 attacks, records related to foreign funding and gifts, whistleblower complaints regarding faculty bias or antisemitism, and details on international student admissions and their compliance with the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP).

This is not the first time Harvard has found itself at the center of a national civil rights debate. As The New York Post reported, in June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Harvard’s affirmative action policies, declaring them unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. The university had defended its admissions system, which prioritized race-based considerations, all the way to the high court.

Rep. Stefanik, a frequent critic of her alma mater, has been an outspoken advocate for Jewish students. During a contentious December 2023 hearing, she famously grilled then-Harvard President Claudine Gay over her institution’s failure to condemn antisemitic campus speech. Gay resigned just weeks later amid a plagiarism scandal and mounting political pressure.

The Oversight Committee’s investigation into Harvard represents more than just a dispute with one university—it reflects a broader political and legal campaign to reshape American higher education. By tying federal funding to civil rights compliance and ideological neutrality, the Trump administration and its congressional allies are signaling that elite institutions are not above the law.

As The New York Post has reported, the outcome of this inquiry could reverberate across the Ivy League and beyond, setting a new standard for what universities must do to receive and retain taxpayer support.