US task force finds Harvard was ‘willful participant in antisemitic harassment’ at times

WASHINGTON — Harvard University failed to protect Jewish students from harassment, the Trump administration concludes after an investigation, threatening to cut all federal funding from the Ivy League school if it fails to take action.

A federal task force sends a letter to Harvard 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 antisemitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff” and that campus leaders allowed antisemitism to fester on the campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” officials say in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press and first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Harvard doesn’t immediately comment.

It’s the latest intensification in the White House’s battle with Harvard, which lost more than $2.6 billion in federal funding after rejecting a list of federal demands calling for sweeping changes to campus governance, hiring and admissions.