Harvard University renames its DEI office as its battle with the Trump administration expands to more fronts

By Andy Rose and Karina Tsui, CNN

(CNN) — Hours after Harvard University faced the Trump administration in court for the first time in its push to restore more than $2 billion in blocked federal funding, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college made a symbolic bow to White House demands, renaming its diversity, equity and inclusion office.

The change was announced Monday in an email to the campus community from the head of what had been the Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. It nods to a sweeping effort by President Donald Trump to eliminate DEI practices – designed to advance racial, gender, class and other representation in public spaces – he decries as “illegal and immoral discrimination.”

“We must sharpen our focus on fostering connections across difference, creating spaces for dialogue, and cultivating a culture of belonging – not as an abstract ideal, but as a lived experience for all,” Harvard’s Sherri Ann Charleston wrote. “To capture this emphasis and this mission, our office will become Community and Campus Life, effective immediately.”

Harvard further announced Monday it would no longer host or fund affinity group celebrations during commencement, reported the school’s student-led newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, citing an email Charleston sent that day to affinity groups. The decision was made after the Department of Education threatened funding cuts if Harvard did not cancel graduation celebrations that could separate students based on race, it reported.

The Trump administration on Monday also announced it was launching investigations into the Harvard Law Review, saying authorities have gotten complaints about race-based discrimination.

“Harvard Law Review’s article selection process appears to pick winners and losers on the basis of race, employing a spoils system in which the race of the legal scholar is as, if not more, important than the merit of the submission,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement.

Monday’s developments expanding Harvard’s multifront battle with the White House came the same day lawyers for both sides met in court for the first time since the school sued over a $2.2 billion freeze in its federal research funding, the largest of such pauses also in place at other elite US colleges amid the White House’s crackdown over political ideology in higher education.

Harvard’s president in an April 14 open letter had said the school would not make broad policy changes the White House demanded of colleges across the country, including eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs. “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Alan Garber wrote.

Advocates for education independence have praised Harvard’s refusal of the Trump administration’s lengthy list of demands, which also includes changing university policies on protests and admissions, tightening antisemitism efforts and requiring of “viewpoint diversity” in hiring.

Harvard’s funding freeze is likely to remain in place at least through midsummer and until a federal district judge makes her final decision in the case. The school has not asked for emergency relief, and oral arguments are set for July 21.

The White House also has threatened to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status and its eligibility to host foreign students.

‘Right time to adjust’ DEI titles, Harvard says

Monday’s letter from Charleston announcing the change to the name of her office was released along with an internal survey conducted last fall that seeks to gauge the climate around inclusion and belonging of the campus community.

“It seemed like the right time to adjust my title to better reflect what the offices under my direction do for our campus community,” Charleston wrote.

Her letter also cited a reference from Garber’s April 14 statement regarding the need to be in compliance with the Supreme Court’s landmark 2023 decision ending affirmative action in American colleges. A case at the heart of that ruling involved Harvard and was decided by the same judge now presiding over the funding dispute.

“We will also continue to comply with Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ruled that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act makes it unlawful for universities to make decisions ‘on the basis of race,’” Garber wrote this month.

Charleston did not immediately respond CNN’s questions about the DEI office announcement. The Harvard website on Tuesday morning still called the office by its old name and listed Charleston, who said her new title is Chief Community and Campus Life Officer, with the title she’s held since 2020.

Harvard’s decision to rebrand its DEI office follows similar reorganizations at government agencies, schools and companies across the country amid Trump’s crackdown on such programs. In a January executive order, the president condemned DEI practices as “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences.”

Harvard argues in its lawsuit the funding freeze measure is the Trump administration’s “attempt to coerce and control Harvard” while disregarding “fundamental First Amendment principles” and claims Washington violated an arcane 1946 law governing administrative policies.

In particular, the Administrative Procedure Act “requires this Court to hold unlawful and set aside any final agency action that is ‘arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law,’” the Harvard lawsuit says.

Trump administration attorneys have not responded to the allegations in the lawsuit, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said April 22: “The president has made it quite clear that it’s Harvard who has put themselves in the position to lose their own funding by not obeying federal law, and we expect all colleges and universities who are receiving taxpayer funds to abide by federal law.”

CNN’s Ray Sanchez, Kara Scannell, Nicki Brown, Taylor Romine and Lauren Mascarenhas contributed to this report.

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