Harvard ‘failed to respond' to 450 discrimination complaints. Staff hand-delivered them again
Last month, Harvard University made the news for resisting the Trump administration's demands. But Harvard Medical School instructor Lara Jirmanus said something else is happening behind the scenes.
The Harvard administration has 'failed to respond' to discrimination against faculty, staff and students, especially those of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian descent or those who study or have been vocal about their thoughts on the war in Gaza, she said.
'We stand with Harvard as it fights for free speech ... and we want in,' said Jirmanus, who describes herself as a Palestinian-Lebanese American.
A Harvard spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment.
Jirmanus is part of Harvard United for an Inclusive Community, a group of staff and faculty that hand-delivered 452 discrimination complaints to Harvard President Alan Garber's office on Monday.
The complaints had already been submitted to the Harvard University Office for Community Conduct, which is responsible for non-discrimination and anti-bullying policies and the Presidential Task Force of Anti-Arab, Anti-Muslim and Anti-Palestinian Racism.
The effort on Monday was aimed at trying to have the administration respond to the concerns of doxxing, harassment and death threats that the Harvard community has gone through since 2023, Jirmanus said.
Read more: 'Willing to capitulate': Cracks emerge in Harvard's resistance to Trump over DEI
Two weeks ago Harvard released two long-awaited reports from Harvard's task forces on antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias and anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias.
According to the report on anti-Palestinian bias, students who purportedly supported Palestine dealt with doxxing trucks publicly displaying photos and personal information. Many appeared on campus while others were in front of their families' homes — in parts of Massachusetts, and as distant as Vermont and other East Coast states.
'The great irony here is that Harvard made many changes before the reports came out,' Jirmanus said.
Jirmanus said Harvard has been 'eliminating the speech' of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian people through a series of 'utterly discriminatory' actions before the reports were published.
'It was too little, too late,' she said.
For instance, Harvard School of Public Health cut ties with Birzeit University in the West Bank amid repeated claims that the university was tied to Hamas and dismissed faculty at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, as critics claimed they failed to adequately represent Israeli perspectives.
'Harvard has capitulated to a campaign of academic McCarthyism by people whose main credential is their wealth and power,' said Dr. Aaron Shakow, a Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies alum.
Shakow and other organizers said donors are partially to blame for Harvard's actions.
'Far from protecting itself, Harvard has instead surrendered its own values, 'destroying the village in order to save it,'' said Shakow, who is also a lecturer at Harvard Medical School.
Jirmanus pointed to a January 2025 letter from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, which backed up a complaint alleging Harvard discriminated against students on the basis of their national origin — Palestinian, Arab and/or Muslim students — when it failed to respond appropriately to incidents of harassment in the 2023-2024 school year.
It found that Harvard's policies and procedures were insufficient in responding to Title VI harassment, that the institution failed to provide a 'prompt and effective response to reports of a hostile environment,' and its record-keeping practices are insufficient to 'make a determination about Title VI compliance.'
Harvard United for an Inclusive Community wants Harvard to 'promote healing and repair' through restorative justice.
Part of that would include acknowledging the harm done to Arab, Muslim and Palestinian students, apologizing and seeking to repair and rebuild the situation by reinstating programs, leaders and creating an Institute of Palestine Studies.
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