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Several Harvard graduate schools shuttered their diversity, equity, and inclusion offices over the past two weeks, continuing the University’s effort to replace DEI programs that the Trump administration has broadly painted as illegal.
The Harvard Divinity School replaced its diversity office with an Office of Community and Belonging on July 1, the office’s dean wrote in a Thursday email, and the Harvard School of Public Health announced Friday that it would take the same step by renaming its diversity group the Office for Community and Belonging.
Harvard Business School websites that previously advertised support for minority, women, and LGBTQ students have been removed. Staff at HBS whose titles previously included “diversity and inclusion” are now involved with “community and culture.”
And the Harvard Graduate School of Education laid off its chief diversity officer, Jarrod Chin, and closed its diversity office last week, according to the Boston public radio station GBH. The office’s website and Chin’s profile are still online, and Chin and a school spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment on the changes.
So far, the rebranding has largely happened without layoffs of top staff and with the promise of replacement programs. But details on Harvard’s new approach have remained scant, and little has been communicated to students and faculty.
The latest changes began rolling in two months after the University replaced its central Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging in late April. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that it would shutter its diversity office and create an Office for Academic Culture and Community. That same day, Harvard College quietly scrubbed the websites for centers supporting minority students, LGBTQ students, and women.
Harvard Medical School restructured and renamed its diversity office earlier this summer.
Several graduate schools have yet to follow suit in overhauling their diversity programming. The Harvard Kennedy School, Law School, and Design School have not announced changes.
The Trump administration has long conditioned any truce on Harvard’s elimination of DEI programming. And the moves coincide with news — trumpeted by the White House and privately acknowledged by the University’s top brass — that the two parties are back at the negotiating table.
But public tensions seem to have returned in the past few days, with the White House subpoenaing Harvard and threatening its accreditation Wednesday morning.
For the University, the stakes are high. Though Harvard is unlikely to lose its accreditation any time soon, Donald Trump has signed an 8 percent tax on its endowment and flung threats to revoke its tax-exempt status. And Harvard is enmeshed in two ongoing lawsuits to block multibillion dollar federal funding cuts and attempts to curb its ability to host international students.
So far, there has been no sign of an agreement between the federal government and Harvard. But the removal of DEI language has coincided with its replacement by language on pluralism, dialogue, and ideological diversity.
The new messaging both echoes a key Trump demand that has been widely interpreted as a request for the University to give a boost to conservative views on campus — and continues along a course that Harvard has leaned into for years, especially as its leaders try to soothe rifts over Israel’s war in Gaza.
In his Friday email announcing the renaming of HSPH’s diversity office, HSPH Dean Andrea A. Baccarelli announced a working group on “constructive engagement” that will investigate whether his school sufficiently fosters “viewpoint diversity.”
Other changes were made quietly. An HSPH website that once extolled the “power of diversity” and championed “building a culture of inclusivity” now testifies to the “power of pluralism” and “a culture of mutual respect.”
Melissa W. Bartholomew, HDS’s associate dean for community and belonging, wrote in her Thursday email that her school overhauled its diversity office “in alignment with the evolution” of diversity programming at Harvard. The effort, she said, was first announced with the name change for the University’s central diversity office.
“This month marks our five-year anniversary as an office, which — along with the evolving changes to and expectations of our work — has presented us with a timely opportunity to reflect on our past as we shape our future,” Bartholomew wrote.
It remains unclear to what extent the changes represent a surface-level rebranding or a structural overhaul. Harvard’s schools have said they are still committed to making students feel welcome, and its leaders have emphasized the value of a diverse student body.
But the University has made at least some concrete cuts: removing requirements for diversity statements from faculty hiring processes, leaving DEI-related leadership posts empty for years, and withdrawing support for affinity group Commencement celebrations.
The moves come at a moment when many see DEI as politically untenable. And universities’ DEI programs have received criticism from both the right and the left as rigid, shallow, or censorious.
But Harvard’s decision to walk back its public commitment to DEI could prompt backlash among some students and faculty, who argue that promoting diversity should be a central tenet for the University — and who see recent changes as concessions to the Trump administration. In a recent survey of the FAS, 55 percent of faculty respondents believe Harvard should prioritize DEI principles, while only 27 percent said it should not.
At HKS, resources from the school’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging are still prominently displayed in student spaces. And the HKS dean for diversity, Robbin Chapman, championed the work of her office in a speech at the school’s Class Day in late May.
“Diversity, inclusion and belonging are not only ideals that we aspire to, but they're principles we must actively cultivate through meaningful and often challenging engagement with one another,” Chapman said to the graduating class.
But Chapman won’t be around much longer. HKS Dean Jeremy M. Weinstein wrote in an email to school affiliates that she is leaving in late July, a move Chapman attributed to “pressing family obligations” in a statement.
Weinstein announced that Sarah Wald, an advisor for the dean, will fill Chapman’s role in the interim while the school searches for a new person to “carry forward this important work.”
—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.
—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.
—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at elise.spenner@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @EliseSpenner.
