Less than a week after three federal agencies conditioned Harvard’s federal funding on cutting its DEI programs, Dunne said the DSO was “operating in the arena right now with the same plans that we had at the start of the year.”
The three offices — the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, the Office of BGLTQ Student Life, and the Women’s Center — are all housed under the DSO’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion team.
The Trump administration’s demands to Harvard on Thursday asked the University to ax its DEI programs as the government reviews nearly $9 billion in funding commitments to Harvard and affiliated hospitals.
“DEI programs teach students, faculty, staff, and leadership to make snap judgments about each other based on crude race and identity stereotypes, which fuels division and hatred based on race, color, national origin, and other protected identity characteristics,” the letter read. “All efforts should be made to shutter such programs.”
But Dunne said he anticipated programming and events associated with the College’s diversity offices would continue as usual because they serve the entire student body.
“Those are events that are open to all students and so our expectation is that we continue the programs that we always have done,” Dunne said. “All students can and should be engaging with these centers.”
However, the fate of Harvard’s diversity offices will likely be decided by Harvard’s top brass: the Harvard Corporation and University President Alan M. Garber ’76, who must craft a response to Trump’s ultimatum. If Garber and the governing boards concede to the White House, the DSO may have little choice but to shutter its planned events — and potentially entire offices.
At the interview, which took place three days after Harvard announced that three international students’ visas had been revoked, Dunne said the DSO was developing a plan to ensure the College is “a supportive community” for international students.
