Harvard University is renaming its Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging and canceling its funding of “affinity group” graduation ceremonies that segregate students based on race, as the Trump administration places mounting pressure on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in higher education.
The Ivy League school announced the changes in two separate emails hours apart on Monday, the Harvard Crimson reported.
The DEI office will now be named “Community and Campus Life.” It will focus on expanding cross-cultural engagement, supporting first-generation and low-income students, and giving students the opportunity to dialogue regardless of differences.
“In the weeks and months ahead, we will take steps to make this change concrete and to work with all of Harvard’s schools and units to implement these vital objectives, including shared efforts to reexamine and reshape the missions and programs of offices across the university,” the email reads.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the DEI office’s name change has yet to be reflected on its university webpage.
Harvard then announced it would no longer host or fund graduation celebrations for affinity groups. Although the email stated that such groups will no longer receive “funding, staffing, or spaces for affinity celebrations,” the university did not specify which celebrations would no longer be allowed on campus.
Affinity celebrations at Harvard are primarily divided based on race, but class and sexuality may also be taken into account. Last year, Harvard hosted ten affinity celebrations for Arab, black, first-generation, and low-income graduates, among those from other backgrounds. Celebrations for LGBT, Jewish, veteran, and disabled graduates have also been held at the Massachusetts school in the past.
The Department of Education only addressed the affinity celebrations based on race in its letter to Harvard. It is likely Harvard will get rid of the race-based celebrations, but it remains uncertain what will happen to the commencement events not based on race.
Harvard’s emails suggest administrators are willing to adjust some policies in response to the Trump administration’s demands, but the university has largely remained opposed to federal interference in recent weeks.
Harvard sued the Trump administration last week for pulling its federal funding, namely at least $2.2 billion in federal grants and contracts. The lawsuit argues the federal government is unconstitutionally encroaching on Harvard’s internal affairs and punishing the school for rejecting the White House’s demands.
“The tradeoff put to Harvard and other universities is clear: Allow the Government to micromanage your academic institution or jeopardize the institution’s ability to pursue medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and innovative solutions,” Harvard’s lawyers wrote in the 51-page federal lawsuit.
The $2.2 billion amount in federal funding was suspended shortly after lawyers for Harvard President Alan Garber published a letter refusing to fulfill most of the Trump administration’s demands, which included establishing merit-based hiring and admissions and ending DEI initiatives.
Despite its refusal to cooperate, Harvard’s leadership has made some concessions to the Trump administration. The university dismissed the faculty directors of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies, which has developed apparent antisemitic programming. The school also suspended its research partnership with Birzeit University located in the West Bank in response to public criticism.
The White House launched a review of roughly $9 billion of Harvard’s federal funding late last month to ensure the university is complying with federal civil rights law, including how it has addressed rampant campus antisemitism targeting Jewish students amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas.
Harvard’s shift away from diversity is the latest result of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on DEI programs nationwide.
Also on Monday, the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services launched Title IV probes into Harvard and the Harvard Law Review over alleged racial discrimination. The law journal is accused of prioritizing race instead of merit-based standards for membership and article publication.