Harvard could lose funding after feds cite failure to address antisemitism

The Trump administration has significantly ramped up its campaign against Harvard University, threatening to potentially strip the institution of its federal funding.

This escalation came on Monday from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which announced it would initiate a formal administrative process that could render the Ivy League school ineligible for government contracts and all federal financial assistance.

The HHS’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) referred Harvard to the department’s office responsible for administrative suspension and debarment proceedings. This action was a direct consequence of an earlier referral in July to the US Department of Justice. Both referrals stemmed from allegations that Harvard failed to adequately address discrimination and harassment against its Jewish and Israeli students on campus, potentially violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Paula Stannard, the director of the Office for Civil Rights, who spoke to Reuters said her office had notified Harvard of its right to a formal administrative hearing, where an administrative law judge would determine whether it violated the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Crucially, the university has only 20 days to seek this hearing.

What’s the larger ideological conflict?

The action against Harvard is part of a larger, administration-wide effort to use the leverage of federal funding to force policy changes at universities that the president and his allies accuse of fostering antisemitic and “radical left” ideologies.

This campaign, however, has already faced legal setbacks.

Earlier this month, a US District Judge ruled that the Trump administration had unlawfully terminated over $2 billion in research grants previously awarded to Harvard.

In her ruling, Judge Allison Burroughs directly accused the administration of employing “antisemitism as a smokescreen” for what she determined was a “targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”

Beyond the threat to funding, the administration has also been pressing Harvard for a financial settlement. President Trump recently suggested the university should pay “nothing less than $500 million,” arguing the institution “had been very bad.”

The administration’s central claim is that these universities permitted public displays of antisemitism, particularly during pro-Palestinian protests. However, this characterisation is disputed by protesters, including some Jewish groups, who contend that their criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza and occupation of Palestinian territories is being unfairly conflated with extremism and antisemitism.