Harvard University Renames Its Diversity Office

Authorities froze $2.2 billion worth of grants to Harvard this month after the university refused to comply with federal demands on discriminatioin.

People walk through a gate as they exit Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on April 15, 2025. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

Harvard’s Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging will be renamed Community and Campus Life, the university said in an April 28 letter addressed to community members.

The university is currently entangled in a conflict with the Trump administration after it refused requests to act against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, with authorities cutting off funding and Harvard filing a lawsuit against the government.

The name change is “effective immediately,” Sherri Ann Charleston, who oversees the office, wrote in the letter. Charleston said the office will redouble efforts to ensure it provides a forum for Harvard schools to share best practices on building a culture of belonging for “all members” at the university.

It also plans to expand and support programs that give community members “greater opportunities to engage across difference.” Another objective is to boost support for low-income and first-generation students.

“In the weeks and months ahead, we will take steps to make this change concrete and to work with all of Harvard’s schools and units to implement these vital objectives, including shared efforts to reexamine and reshape the missions and programs of offices across the university,” the letter said.

“Much of that work is already underway in our schools.”

While Charleston lists her position in the letter as “Chief Community and Campus Life Officer,” she continues to be identified as the “Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer” on Harvard’s website, as of April 29.

The Education Department’s task force on anti-Semitism announced this month that it was freezing $2.2 billion worth of grants and $60 million in contracts to the university.

The funding freeze was implemented after Harvard refused to comply with certain demands made by the General Services Administration, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The demands include eliminating DEI initiatives, banning the use of face coverings during campus protests, and reforming hiring and admission processes to prioritize merit over race or gender criteria.

On April 11, the agencies made more demands, including screening out applicants during the international admissions process who seemed to be “hostile to American values” or “supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism.”

Harvard refused to comply, with the university’s resident, Alan Garber, saying in an open letter on April 14 that the institution “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”

On April 21, Harvard said it had filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the issue. Garber called the freeze on funds “unlawful and beyond the government’s authority.”

“Before taking punitive action, the law requires that the federal government engage with us about the ways we are fighting and will continue to fight antisemitism. Instead, the government’s April 11 demands seek to control whom we hire and what we teach,” he said.

On April 17, the Department of Education asked Harvard to submit a list of its foreign funders after finding that the university’s foreign funding disclosures were “incomplete and inaccurate.”

Racial Discrimination Probe

The Education Department said in an April 28 statement that the department and HHS are also investigating Harvard University and the Harvard Law Review over allegations that the journal engages in racial discrimination.

The probe follows reports that the Law Review used “race-based criteria” in its article selection process and journal membership, which would violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

“Title VI’s demands are clear: recipients of federal financial assistance may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in the statement.

“The Trump Administration will not allow Harvard, or any other recipients of federal funds, to trample on anyone’s civil rights.”

One of the reported instances of discrimination involved a journal editor saying it was “concerning” that most people who wanted to respond to an article regarding police reform were white men, the statement said.

Another journal editor reportedly suggested that an article “should be subject to expedited review because the author was a minority,” according to the statement.

Commenting on the investigation, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said ­in an April 29 post on social media platform X that the government would “not allow recipients of federal funding to discriminate on the basis of race.”

Other universities are also feeling the heat from federal authorities over discriminatory practices or policies.

On April 28, the Education Department said its Office for Civil Rights had determined that the University of Pennsylvania was in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 as it denied women “equal opportunities by permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”