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The House Judiciary Committee is prepared to subpoena Harvard for allegedly failing to submit documents requested as part of an antitrust tuition collusion investigation launched earlier this month, according to a House staffer familiar with the plans.
Harvard had originally been given a deadline of April 22 to respond to the probe — which alleged that Ivy League schools were engaging in potential “anti-competitive pricing practices” by jointly determining tuition rates — but it did not turn over the documents by that deadline, according to the person.
Harvard spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain defended the University in a statement, writing that the House committee had granted Harvard an extension until the week of May 19 to submit the requested documents.
A spokesperson for House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jim D. Jordan (R-Ohio) did not respond to a request for comment about the extension or whether it was still prepared to issue a subpoena.
In an April 8 letter to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76, House Republicans demanded that the University turn over any communications with other Ivy League universities since 2019 regarding financial aid practices and admissions policies. It also asked for correspondence between schools about the use of third party application companies like the College Board and the Common Application.
Members of the Judiciary Committee contended that Harvard and its peers had continued to jointly determine financial aid plans even after the antitrust exemption permitting such collaboration expired in 2022.
Similar letters were issued to the presidents of the seven other Ivy League universities at the same time that Harvard received its letter. A spokesperson for Jordan did not respond to a request for comment on whether other schools had also missed the April 22 deadline.
A spokesperson for Brown University told the Brown Daily Herald that the University had submitted an “initial version” of the documents on the day they were due and that it would continue to provide additional information on a rolling basis.
Spokespeople for the other Ivy League universities did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of their submissions.
Congress can launch an antitrust probe and request documents from universities without proof of a legal infraction. If Harvard was issued a subpoena, it could either comply — as it did in March 2024 when House Republicans subpoenaed Garber and two members of Harvard’s top brass — or appeal the request in court.
The April 8 announcement came just days before the Trump administration began its week-long salvo against Harvard, pausing $2.2 billion in federal grants and contracts just hours after Garber defied the White House’s demands. That same week, President Donald Trump also threatened to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status and Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform opened an investigation into alleged civil rights violations on campus.
The April 22 deadline is just one in a series that the White House and Congress have levied upon Harvard.
On April 17, the Department of Homeland Security demanded that Harvard either turn over information regarding international students’ participation in protests or lose its eligibility to admit international students. Just hours before the deadline on Wednesday, Harvard announced that it had shared at least some of the information.
The University also has until May 2 to respond to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which requested that it turn over all drafts of reports and findings from its task forces on combating antisemitism and Islamophobia.
—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.
—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.
