Trump-Harvard feud sparks debate among students about discrimination in admissions

Fox News

21-05-2025

President Donald Trump's probe into Harvard University's admissions policies has sparked intense debate among the school's faculty and students, with some highlighting the elite school's faults.
"I think this university has gone through a lot of conflict with the student body. I think that a lot of these concerns are warranted, but I suspect the political nature of some of these investigations and attention," said Kem, a public policy major who did not disclose his year and last name.
The Department of Education's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism released a statement on May 13, announcing a cut in $450 million in grants from the university, citing that the university has "repeatedly failed to confront the pervasive race discrimination and antisemitic harassment plaguing its campus," in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack against Israel and ensuing Gaza War.
Furthermore, the Trump administration has frozen $2.2 billion in funding to the university and threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status due to the Ivy League school's alleged failure to address antisemitism on campus. Harvard hit back with a lawsuit last month over the funding freeze, saying it was unlawful.
A native of Thailand, Kem said that he has not heard his classmates or faculty members complain about being discriminated against. He added that he heard "talk" of Harvard's nonprofit status being revoked.
"I wouldn't be surprised if these kinds of actions are considered," he said.
Fox News Digital spoke with Harvey Mansfield, a retired professor of over 60 years, at his farm estate in Ipswich, Massachusetts, a rural town outside of Boston.
"Harvard has found out what it means to lean one way and especially to the left. That was a great mistake, and I am glad to see it being corrected and brought to an end," Mansfield said.
Mansfield went on to say, "I agree with the critics, I think it is a manner of discrimination. We shouldn't judge people by their race or by sex. I think that's wrong, and it's wrong according to the Supreme Court decision. Recently, it really has had a great effect on Harvard and other universities."
Mansfield, 93, taught political science and political philosophy at Harvard. The author of the book "Dead White Males" first attended Harvard at age 17.
He added the university and Trump are on the right track. However, Mansfield believes that Trump's demands for Harvard are too "invasive" and the demands the commander-in-chief is putting on Harvard could not be met by the university.
"I think it's headed towards adding more conservatives; changing the viewpoint of our general attitude towards Harvard. Harvard has a massive imbalance in favor of the left, and it needs to correct that and that's not going to be easy," the former academic said.
Some Harvard students suggested that the school should do better at admitting students from beyond an upper-class background. For instance, senior Aidan Fitzsimmons said that the school seems to admit applicants from similar backgrounds.
"It does kind of feel like 70% of the kids here come from the same kinds of high schools, the same kind of zip codes. Same top 15, 20% of the U.S. in common. It is kind of shocking to me how a rich kid from a D.C. suburb or a (San Francisco) SF suburb or a New York suburb and an LA suburb or a Boston suburb—you know, a lot of them feel a lot more similar to one another," Fitzsimmons said.
Leo Koerner, a junior and history major and president of the university's College Republicans, said Harvard's "elitism" is part of the fabric of the university.
"The question is whether, if Harvard wants to take seriously its commitment to intellectual diversity. If they want to do that, then yeah, they have to start letting in people from … the heartland of America," he said. "The question is, how are they going to recruit those people, how are you going to get them here? That's a bigger question. But I don't think you're going to take the elitism out of Harvard."
"If the Trump DOJ wants to come after Harvard, I'm sure they would be able to find something," third-year law student Andrew Hayes said.
Hayes told Fox News Digital that Harvard University and Harvard Law School, in particular, have been debating over the highly selective school's admissions policies.
"I know a lot of the controversy has been centered at the college, but here at the law school as well," he said.
"I know there's been a lot of controversy over whether the law review in particular and some of the law school admissions and some of the administration here at the law school have been in compliance. Especially where federal grants are involved or anything like that. I know there's been a lot of discussion on campus about what the law review and about what the administration have been doing in terms of admissions, and whether there's subtle or not so subtle racial discrimination going on," he continued.
Hayes also reacted to a report from the New York Times that Trump is using the Department of Justice to investigate whether Harvard's admissions policies comply with a Supreme Court ruling that ended affirmative action.
Hayes cited the student activist group Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) case against Harvard that resulted in the Suprme Court ruling, rejecting the use of race as a factor in college admissions.
"I mean, obviously the school needs to be... a lot more careful after the SFFA," he said. "I think it's a very near review of equity that people in the admissions office and in the administration of the school here have. I think there probably are a lot of discriminatory practices that are getting swept under the rug for now and so, I don't know if they'll come from journalists or come from a prosecution or lawsuit or whatever, but I think there's probably a lot to see once you look under the hood."