Harvard rebrands diversity office amid legal clash with Trump administration

Harvard University has renamed its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) office to the "Office of Community and Campus Life," a decision revealed to its community on Monday. The move comes amid heightened tensions with the Trump administration, which has threatened Harvard’s federal funding and launched a civil rights investigation into the Harvard Law Review.

The timing of the announcement coincided with the first legal conference between Harvard and the U.S. Department of Education over a lawsuit the university filed, accusing the administration of unlawfully interfering in its institutional autonomy. Just hours later, federal officials disclosed a separate probe into the student-run Harvard Law Review, alleging racial bias in article selection and membership.

“[The Harvard Law Review] 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,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education, said in a statement.

In response, Harvard Law School noted its legal separation from the journal but affirmed that all affiliated programs follow federal laws. A similar complaint filed in 2019 was previously dismissed by a federal court.

The DEI office restructuring aligns with similar changes across U.S. universities, many of which have come under criticism from conservative groups. Sherri Ann Charleston, previously Harvard’s chief diversity officer, now holds the title of chief community and campus life officer. She said the university must focus on connecting people through individual experiences, not just by demographic identity. “We should bring people together based on their backgrounds and perspectives and not the broad demographic groups to which they belong,” Charleston said.

Two weeks earlier, the Trump administration issued a list of compliance demands to Harvard as a condition for maintaining federal funding. The list included calls to dismantle DEI efforts, monitor viewpoint diversity, bar international students deemed hostile to “American values,” and remove activist faculty. Although officials later said the list had been sent in error, the administration has not withdrawn its conditions.

In retaliation for Harvard’s noncompliance, the government has frozen over $2.2 billion in grants and contracts.

“No government, regardless of which party, should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Harvard President Alan M. Garber responded.

The legal proceedings between the university and the administration are ongoing.