The Health and Human Services Department on Monday started the process for blocking Harvard University from receiving future research grants, three months after finding that the university violated civil rights law by failing to address the harassment of Jewish students on campus.
Debarment is the government’s formal way of blacklisting contractors. Monday’s announcement that the Trump administration was initiating the debarment process represented a shift from May, when Education Secretary Linda McMahon issued a letter that simply disqualified Harvard from future federal funding.
With this move, the administration is increasing pressure on Harvard at a time when the White House and university leaders have struggled to negotiate a settlement to their monthslong dispute over the administration’s campaign to expunge “woke” ideology from college campuses.
Harvard declined to comment on the move on Monday.