The Trump administration on Wednesday challenged Harvard University’s accredited status due to accusations that the school violated federal civil rights laws in its handling of antisemitism on campus. 

The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services notified the New England commission controlling Harvard’s accreditation that the Ivy League Institution “may fail to meet the standards for accreditation” due to federal findings that the school violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of government funding from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

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“By allowing antisemitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement regarding the Trump administration’s notice to the New England Commission of Higher Education. 

“The Department of Education expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards,” she added. 

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. added that federal agencies plan to “actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination.”

The Trump administration similarly targeted Columbia University’s accredited status in June due to concerns that the school unlawfully allowed hate against Jewish students to go unchecked.

The administration’s new challenge to Harvard’s accreditation is the latest twist in the battle of wills between the academic institution and the White House, following the Justice Department’s announcement last week that the school was in “violent violation” of Title VI. 

The dispute centers on disagreements over whether Harvard has done enough to address antisemitism reported on campus. 

The school has acknowledged it failed to tackle violence and bias against Jewish students sufficiently, issuing an apology after an internal investigation uncovered evidence that sweeping antisemitism had long festered at the institution. 

However, Harvard University President Alan Garber has refused to capitulate to the Trump administration’s broad demands for reforms or else lose federal backing, arguing that many of them infringe on the school’s right to operate in freedom as guaranteed by the First Amendment. 

As punishment for the school’s defiance, the Trump administration has moved to strip all federal funding from Harvard, accounting for billions of dollars, and sought to ban the school from enrolling international students, arguing that many of the “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” accused of bullying their Jewish classmates were foreign students. 

Harvard has filed lawsuits challenging both the removal of federal funding and the ban on foreign students. 

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A judge granted the school a temporary restraining order last month blocking Trump from banning foreign students at Harvard, although the Department of Homeland Security signaled on Wednesday it isn’t giving up on the fight, sending Garber a subpoena for information regarding the enforcement of immigration laws since 2020 concerning foreign students.

The DOJ and Harvard will meet in person for the first time in the federal funding case in a hearing scheduled for July 21.