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The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on Friday gave Harvard a 20-day deadline to turn over information in an investigation into its consideration of race in undergraduate admissions, accusing the University of ignoring repeated requests for documents.

The OCR wrote in a Friday afternoon press release that Harvard will “face further enforcement action” if it does not submit the requested information by the deadline. The press release did not specify what documents the office had asked for, nor did it indicate whether Harvard had previously made document submissions as part of the investigation.

The Education Department opened its inquiry into Harvard’s admissions in May to determine whether Harvard was complying with the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision prohibiting race-conscious admissions and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race-based discrimination at federally funded institutions.

Spokespeople for Harvard and the Education Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

The denial of access letter sent to Harvard on Friday ratchets up pressure on the University once again. Negotiations toward a settlement have reportedly stalled since a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore billions of dollars in research funding that it had frozen this spring.

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has wielded the Supreme Court’s ruling as a tool to cast suspicion on universities — and to threaten penalties against Harvard.

When the White House struck a deal restoring Columbia University’s federal funding, the agreement required Columbia to submit annual data on the standardized test scores, grade point averages, and race of its applicants and admits. On Aug. 7, Trump issued a presidential memorandum extending the requirement to all universities.

The requirement could open Harvard to legal action if the administration is unsatisfied with the patterns in its admissions data.

The Trump administration has already targeted Harvard’s admissions process directly in a separate investigation by the Department of Justice, which accused the University of defrauding the government under the False Claims Act, the New York Times reported in May.

In a May 6 letter cutting off future grants to Harvard, McMahon accused Harvard of continued racial preferencing and failure to abide by the 2023 Supreme Court ruling. The Trump administration’s demands to Harvard have included adopting “merit-based” admissions policies.

Friday’s press release once again accused Harvard of breaking the law.

“Reports suggest that the university continues to engage in unlawful racial discrimination in its admissions process,” the press release read, without specifying any reports that have made this claim.

Reporting in Bloomberg this week suggested that Black enrollment at Harvard Law School has rebounded after dropping sharply last year.

It is not clear exactly what documents the Education Department is seeking. But the Justice Department’s inquiry from May included requests for text messages, emails, and other communications between Harvard officials about Trump’s executive orders against diversity, equity, and inclusion, according to the New York Times.

Friday’s denial of access letter is just a warning, but it sets the stage for the White House to punish Harvard. University of New Mexico law professor Vinay Harpalani, who studies race and education law, said the Trump administration could try to strip Harvard’s federal funding under Title VI — potentially a redux of the funding freeze from this spring.

“I imagine in the context of admissions, this could be federal financial aid — suspending any federal financial aid to Harvard students,” Harpalani said.

On Friday, the Education Department also hit Harvard with a notice that it had been placed on heightened cash monitoring status, requiring the University to draw on its own funds before accessing federal financial aid and to post a multimillion dollar letter of credit to prove its financial stability. A press release accompanying the announcement suggested that Harvard could lose federal student aid funding if it did not comply with the OCR’s requests.

Stetson University law professor Peter F. Lake ’81, who studies higher education law, said he thought the notices to Harvard were a sign that the administration was imposing public pressure to push Harvard into a deal.

“It tells me that there’s some hard bargaining going on between Harvard and the Trump administration right now, and the signal that I’m picking up on this is that they’re trying to force the deal with Harvard,” Lake said.

—Staff writer Cassidy M. Cheng can be reached at cassidy.cheng@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cassidy_cheng28.

—Staff writer Elias M. Valencia can be reached at elias.valencia@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @eliasmvalencia.