The Trump administration privately circulated a confidential memo in early April outlining an extensive plan to exert federal control over Harvard University, including the possibility of placing a lien on all university assets and eliminating specific academic and student support programs, according to documents recently disclosed in a court filing, as reported by The Harvard Crimson.Dated April 3, the four-page memo was marked “Privileged and Confidential” and sent to Harvard’s legal team the same day a public letter from the White House threatened to cut off $9 billion in federal funding unless Harvard implemented sweeping reforms. While the public letter included broad categories of institutional change, the internal memo provided a more detailed roadmap of proposed federal interventions.Memo included governance changes and asset controlsThe internal document proposed a series of governance reforms aimed at increasing federal influence over Harvard’s leadership, according to The Harvard Crimson. These included setting a minimum requirement of 15 years of “acceptable leadership experience” for future Harvard presidents, a policy that would have excluded former president Claudine Gay and interim president Alan M. Garber.The memo also suggested placing Harvard’s academic departments under receivership and appointing a federally approved senior provost to oversee reforms. Programs identified for potential federal oversight included Jewish Studies, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and Ethnicity, Migration, Rights in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS); Religion and Public Life at the Harvard Divinity School; and the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health.Plans to dismantle DEI efforts and regulate student groupsAs reported by The Harvard Crimson, the memo called for the elimination of all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) offices and a ban on protest masks. It also targeted the Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, which supports minority and first-generation students, recommending its elimination.The Trump administration also proposed using trademark law to penalize unrecognized student groups using Harvard’s name, such as Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine. It recommended holding recognized organizations accountable if they shared members with unrecognized groups. The memo referred to these actions as an “augmented Columbia accountability ask,” referencing similar interventions at Columbia University.Internal proposals preceded April 11 demandsThe April 11 letter — which Trump administration officials later stated was sent in error — shocked Harvard officials, but the memo indicates the university had already been informed of the scope of possible federal action days earlier, according to The Harvard Crimson. After receiving the memo, Harvard continued talks with the federal government for over a week, until the April 11 letter formalized many of the proposals.Some proposals in the memo were never made public in official correspondence, including placing a lien on Harvard assets, abolishing the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Faculty Council, and launching a “Legacy of Antisemitism” initiative modeled after Harvard’s slavery reparations program.Additional report proposed conservative academic center and suspensionsAs reported by The Harvard Crimson, a separate undated 10-page report, released with the court filing, proposed creating a Center for Antisemitism Research co-led by Harvard Chabad and Hillel. It called for Harvard to suspend student government operations for five years, sever ties with Palestinian institutions, and establish a conservative academic center modeled after the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.It remains unclear whether Harvard ever received the report. Neither the Trump administration nor Harvard has publicly confirmed its involvement in the document’s creation, and the White House declined to comment, The Harvard Crimson reported.Since April, Harvard has renamed DEI offices across its schools and reduced commitments to underrepresented hiring. According to The Harvard Crimson, it is also in discussions with donors and Harvard Corporation members about building a conservative academic center.TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us here.
