Since the beginning of Trump 2.0, the administration has been battling with Ivy League universities. Now, the saga continues with new details emerging about Harvard University’s behavior toward Jewish and Israeli students. According to a letter to Harvard from the Department of Education, the Office of Civil Rights under the Department of Health and Human Services discovered that Harvard “is in violent violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin.” The 57-page investigation came from 50 different “listening sessions” with Jewish Harvard students.

The report listed multiple violations and infringements against Jewish students’ civil rights. The investigation discovered the “majority of Jewish students reported experiencing negative bias or discrimination on campus.” Many of them “were assaulted and spit on” and resulted in a number of students hiding their Jewish identities by concealing their kippahs. Anti-Semitic symbols and images like swastikas covered the campus. Furthermore, the statement detailed the campus upheaval where camps of anti-Israel protestors dwelled for weeks.

“The heart of campus was overrun by an impermissible, multiweek encampment that instilled fear in, and disrupted the studies of, Jewish and Israeli students. Even worse, individuals who participated in the encampment received lax and inconsistent discipline — and as the discipline was reviewed by higher levels among the faculty, it was often downgraded. By the end of the process, even accounting only for the students that were charged, only a fraction received some sort of discipline, and none were suspended. A member of Harvard’s own leadership called the disciplinary process ‘not fair’ and ‘not right,’” the report chronicled.

The Education Department condemned the Ivy League college saying, “Harvard’s inaction in the face of these civil rights violations is a clear example of the demographic hierarchy that has taken hold of the University. Equal defense of the law demands that all groups, regardless of race or national origin, are protected. Harvard’s commitment to racial hierarchies — where individuals are sorted and judged according to their membership in an oppressed group identity and not individual merit — has enabled anti-Semitism to fester on Harvard’s campus and has led a once great institution to humiliation, offering remedial math and forcing Jewish students to hide their identities and ancestral stories.”

The letter also warned that “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.”

The looming cuts could be detrimental to Harvard. In March, when the “Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism” was first formed, the Department of Education announced they would be reviewing “more than $255.6 million in contracts between Harvard University” as well as “$8.7 billion in multi-year grant commitments to Harvard University and its affiliates.”

Already the university has suffered immense losses with the Trump administration freezing over $2.2 billion in contracts and multiyear grants in April. That pause in funding is currently being litigated with a hearing set for mid-July after the university sued the administration.

The White House also suspended the entry of foreign nationals seeking to join foreign exchange programs at Harvard, which is also currently being litigated. Harvard Magazine reported that international students make up approximately 27% of Harvard’s student body, meaning President Trump’s actions to restrict international students could drastically reduce revenue. The Department of Education reported that Harvard receives $150 million from China alone.

As the war continues between the Trump administration and the Ivy League, one thing remains certain, the administration is playing hardball. While the Biden administration largely ignored the political bias and anti-Semitism on campus, the Trump administration is cutting funding and shrinking the pool of students that the university can pull from, hoping to effectuate change for the Jewish students.