“We are sorry for the moment when we failed to meet the high expectations that we had justified for the community,” Harvard president Alan Gerber said in a statement.
The Trump administration reviews billions of people in fundraising for Harvard
Trump has announced plans to consider a $9 billion federal contract and grant funding at Harvard University for anti-Semitism claims on campus. The administration will consider contracts that amount to more than $255.6 million.
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WASHINGTON – As Harvard’s federal scrutiny intensifies, an internal review released on April 29 by Ivy League schools found evidence of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism on campus.
One report reveals that almost half of Muslim students and staff have felt unsafe on campus since the Israel-Hamas war broke out. The other explained that Jewish students conceal their identity and take out absentee leaves to avoid harassment. Both reviews provided comprehensive and sometimes contradictory recommendations by Harvard President Alan Gerber being Jewish.
“Harvard cannot and will not protect prejudice,” Gerber said in a statement.
The findings examine some of the concerns leveled by the Trump administration’s anti-Semitism task force. Interagency groups frozen billions of dollars in university federal funds on April 14 after Harvard refused to comply with a series of unprecedented demands to overhaul admission, employment and education practices.
The broader impact of the administration’s funding suspension remains unknown, but the escalating fight has halted many of the university’s major research projects, including research into Alzheimer’s disease and cancer treatments.
Hundreds of university presidents have publicly supported Harvard’s refusal to comply with its demands. Gerber argues that the scope of the White House direction makes clear that the Trump administration does not want to deal with anti-Semitism in a cooperative and constructive way.
“While some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at fighting anti-Semitism, the majority represent direct government regulations of Harvard’s ‘intellectual conditions’,” he wrote in an official statement on April 14th.
Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students are abandoned and silent.”
One review published on April 29 revealed deep fear and anxiety among Muslim, Arab, Palestinian and pro-Palestinian students and staff.
Members of these communities on campus feel “abandoned and silent.” Of the over 2,200 students and staff on campus in 2024, a survey launched in 2024 found that half of Muslim respondents reported feeling physically unsafe on campus (6% of Christian respondents to the same question felt unsafe on campus).
Over 90% of Muslim respondents said they believe that they are likely to face academic or professional consequences of expressing their opinions.
“Agitated, sometimes lamentable” anti-Semitism incident
Another report, released on April 29, outlined key areas of concern, including disproportionate educational standards and discrimination for Jewish students and faculty. According to the findings, many of these students and faculty members retreated from campus life on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacks in Israel forced Gaza into a fatal conflict.
After interviews, research and listening sessions, Harvard concluded that several universities’ classes and study abroad programs offer “disquiet, one-sided education in Israel and Palestine.” The accounts shared in the report, along with anti-Zionist “monoculture” complaints in medical schools, describe instructors who cancel classes in solidarity with pro-Palestinian protests.
“They are offering a large window into a wider set of issues in universities and academia,” the findings stated.
Responding to questions in the same survey conducted by Muslim students and faculty, three-quarters of Jewish students said it was uncomfortable to express political opinions on campus.
These dynamics have led Jewish applicants to decline admission and medical settlements at Harvard University hospitals, the report says.
Harassment and fear change campus life
External harassment has had a devastating impact on students as prestigious universities like Harvard became the focus of external scrutiny last year, the report says. The so-called doxing trucks displaying the faces and phone numbers of pro-Palestinian protesters on vehicles at Harvard University and other campuses urged the threat of death and rape.
“In the midst of hundreds of heartbreaking conversations with students, staff and faculty,” the report on anti-Muslim bias states, “A common theme has emerged. Ultimately, no one in leadership feels cares about them.”
Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA Today. You can contact him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @Zachschermele and follow Bluesky at @Zachschermele.bsky.social.