Harvard to rename diversity office, despite rejecting Trump proposal to do so

Harvard will be renaming its diversity office even as it refuses to comply with a letter sent to it by the Trump administration directing it to end such DEI initiatives or lose federal funding.

Former Harvard chief diversity and inclusion officer Sherri Charleston sent a message to students stating that the school’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging would be renamed “Community and Campus Life.”

The change is “effective immediately,” Charleston’s message said.

A Harvard spokesman shared with The Center Square the message and said the school does not “have further comment to provide.”

Other diversity-related wording is apparently being changed as well, as evidenced by Charleston’s new title in the message being “Chief Community and Campus Life Officer.”

The Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (OEDIB) website is still up and running, but it displays the message, “our work is evolving and so is our website.”

“We’ve been working on a website redesign, and over the next few months, we’ll begin to update this website to reflect our expanding mission as Community and Campus Life at Harvard,” the message says.

When asked for comment, neither the OEDIB nor Sherri Charleston responded.

Harvard previously refused to comply with a set of demands given to it by the Trump administration that must be met to continue receiving federal funding, one of the demands being to end diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, as The Center Square previously reported.

The administration’s letter to Harvard specifically read that the university “must immediately shutter all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, offices, committees, positions, and initiatives, under whatever name, and stop all DEI-based policies.”

The letter to Harvard is in line with other efforts to terminate DEI in education, such as the Department of Education’s Dear Colleague letter that stated race-based decisions in education are unlawful.

Harvard’s refusal to comply with Trump’s demands caused a freeze in over $2.2 billion of federal funding to the school, The Center Square reported.

According to Charleston’s message, Harvard’s new Community and Campus Life will “redouble” its emphasis in several areas.

One area will be “providing a forum for schools to come together to share best practices on how to build a culture of belonging for all members of the Harvard Community.”

Another will be “expanding and supporting programs that give members of our community greater opportunities to engage across difference.”

And another will be “enhancing support for first-generation and low-income students.”

The change at Harvard is in part in response to the school’s President Alan Garber’s message, The Promise of American Higher Education.

Charleston quoted Garber’s statement from his message that said Harvard will continue to “work together to find ways, consistent with law, to foster and support a vibrant community that exemplifies, respects, and embraces difference,” as it also “continues to comply with Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ruled that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act makes it unlawful for universities to make decisions ‘on the basis of race.’”

“This is the work ahead,” Charleston said of Garber’s words.

Charleston stated that Harvard needs to focus “on the unique experiences and contributions of the individual and not the broad demographic groups to which they belong.”

Charleston said the school needs to “build a culture in which our differences and disagreements serve as a source of learning and growth, moving away from polarization and toward empathy and understanding.”

The changes at Harvard also reflect findings from the 2024 Pulse Survey, according to Charleston.

“Though a large percentage of people reported a sense of belonging at Harvard,” in the survey, “it was telling that a lower percentage reported forming relationships with people holding different viewpoints or registered a sense of comfort expressing their opinions to others,” Charleston said.

In other Harvard news, Trump announced Friday that his administration would be “revoking Harvard University’s tax exemption status,” The Center Square reported.