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Nine Republican lawmakers on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce opened an investigation into Harvard’s faculty hiring practices on Tuesday, claiming Harvard may have violated federal employment discrimination law by considering race and gender.
In a nine-page letter to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76, the lawmakers — led by Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) — alleged that Harvard’s recruitment and hiring guidelines unlawfully considered race and sex in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“Numerous publicly available documents produced or published by Harvard suggest that Harvard may have been and may still be unlawfully discriminating with respect to its hiring and employment practices,” they wrote.
The lawmakers demanded that Harvard turn over any written policies or guidance documents — current or rescinded — issued since January 20, 2021, that encourage or require the consideration of race, sex, religion, color, or national origin in hiring decisions. The committee also asked the University to explain whether, and in what ways, such factors are currently considered in employment decisions. Harvard has until June 25 to respond.
In the letter, the lawmakers pointed to a Harvard document issued in 2023 that instructs faculty search committees to monitor the racial and gender composition of applicant pools and, in some cases, to “consider reading the applications of women and minorities first.” The guidance also encourages giving such candidates a “second look,” particularly when placement goals are in place.
The document, a “best practices guide” for faculty searches, also recommends that committee members consider whether their list of applicants is diverse and actively recruit women and minority candidates to apply.
The letter also cites a separate document reportedly distributed to interviewers since 2021, which includes suggested questions intended to assess a candidate’s “understanding and commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging.” One prompt, cited in the letter, asks applicants to “explain how diversity played a role in your career.”
The interview prompts also ask candidates to define their own understanding of diversity, discuss the challenges of diverse working environments, and talk about how they have communicated a “complex concept” to someone who speaks English as a second language.
The House investigation appears to have been prompted in part by reporting from conservative activist Christopher F. Rufo, a consistent Harvard critic, who published a piece in City Journal last month leaking the two documents cited in the letter. Rufo himself was also cited several times in the Tuesday letter.
The letter also references a Title VII charge filed on April 25 by Andrea R. Lucas, acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The charge accuses several Harvard initiatives, including programs at the Harvard Medical School designed to support students from underrepresented backgrounds, of race-based discrimination. As evidence of bias, it cited rising percentages of female and minority faculty.
HMS removed a series of diversity-focused programs as part of a restructuring effort at the school’s DEI office last Wednesday. That day, it also quietly erased a public pledge to “advance diversity and inclusion in recruitment, hiring, retention and promotion.”
Harvard has also taken down data on faculty diversity from its website. Until this year, Harvard was required under federal law to collect and report information on its employment of women and racial minorities.
The Republicans wrote that the Harvard-issued documents were “especially concerning” in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in 2023 striking down race-based affirmative action in admissions under Title VI. While they acknowledged the case did not address employment law, they argued that “the principle of equal treatment under the law certainly applies to Title VII as well.” The ruling has become a foundation for broader Republican scrutiny of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at colleges and universities nationwide.
The Tuesday investigation marks the reemergence of the House Education and the Workforce Committee as an active force in congressional oversight of Harvard. The committee grilled University President Claudine Gay during her now infamous December 2023 hearing on campus antisemitism and later subpoenaed Harvard. Its work expanded into a House-wide probe, but the committee itself went largely quiet after releasing a 325-page report in October 2024. With President Donald Trump leading the broader federal effort from the White House, the committee had not launched any new investigations — until now.
Rep. Virginia A. Foxx (R.-N.C.) and Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (R.-N.Y.), who led the committee’s initial push against Harvard, were two of Walberg’s co-signatories.
Tuesday’s letter adds to a growing number of new congressional inquiries targeting Harvard. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee launched a civil rights probe in April into the University’s handling of campus antisemitism. In May, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party opened a separate investigation into Harvard’s research ties with Chinese institutions, accusing the University of collaborating with individuals connected to the People’s Liberation Army.
—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.
