WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik joined Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) in launching an investigation into Harvard University’s potential illegal hiring and employment practices.
Harvard’s “Best Practices for Conducting Faculty Searches” document, copyrighted by the President and Fellows of Harvard College in 2023, recommends that when developing an applicant pool, university administrators should “ensure that the early lists include women and minorities.” In turn, Harvard may be unlawfully considering race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The lawmakers wrote, "The Committee on Education and Workforce (Committee) is investigating and gathering information about discrimination in hiring and employment. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) prohibits employment discrimination because of an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Committee is concerned about recent reports that Harvard University (Harvard) may be discriminating in hiring and employment on these bases. These reports are especially concerning following Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, in which the United States Supreme Court held that Harvard discriminated in student admissions on the basis of race in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. While Title VII and employment discrimination were not at issue in Students for Fair Admissions, the principle of equal treatment under the law certainly applies to Title VII as well."
The lawmakers said, "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. For example, Harvard’s “Best Practices for Conducting Faculty Searches” document, copyrighted by the President and Fellows of Harvard College in 2023, recommends that when developing an applicant pool, administrators should “ensure that the early lists include women and minorities.” Anticipating an objection to quotas while acknowledging placement goals for women and minorities, the document states, “A goal is by no means a quota. But in searches with a placement goal for women and minorities, it is that much more important that the committee conduct robust outreach.” The document also states, “Under University guidelines, the committee chair … can see the confidential individual, self-identified demographic data, including gender, race, and ethnicity ….” The chair should “use this information to encourage diversity in the applicant pool ….” Moreover, “[p]articularly when there are placement goals, the Chair should consider reading the applications of women and minorities first ….” The chair “should continually monitor [the applicant list’s] composition. How diverse is it?” The chair also “should bring forward women or minority applicants who might deserve a ‘second look,’ particularly when there are placement goals” and “should attend to all women and minorities on the long list.”
The lawmakers added, "Further, since 2021, Harvard seems to have provided to those who were interviewing job candidates “Diversity-Related Sample Interview Questions” to “assist in assessing a candidate’s understanding and commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging.” One of the sample questions states, “Explain how diversity played a role in your career.”
The lawmakers continued, "In addition to the above, on April 25, 2025, Andrea R. Lucas, Acting Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), filed a commissioner’s charge with EEOC alleging that Harvard may have violated and may be continuing to violate Title VII. The charge cites public documents from Harvard touting its success in sharply changing the demographics of tenured and tenure-track faculty. The charge also points to multiple hiring and training programs at Harvard that seem to discriminate. For example, Harvard Medical School’s “Summer Training in Academic Research and Scholarship Program (STARS Program)” has a “paid, full-time, summer internship and training program for ‘underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduate and first-year medical students.’” Harvard’s “Mellon Mays Undergraduate Program (MMUF)” has a “paid two-year fellowship program for undergraduate students” for which “‘[a]pplications are particularly encouraged for students of color ….’”'
The lawmakers said, "The Committee has jurisdiction over “labor generally,” including Title VII, and it “shall review and study on a continuing basis the application, administration, execution, and effectiveness of laws and programs addressing subjects with its jurisdiction” as set forth in House Rule X. In addition, your responses to the Committee’s requests may provide important assistance to Congress in determining whether legislative changes are warranted. The Committee’s requests and any documents created as the result of these requests will be deemed congressional documents and property of the Committee."
The lawmakers concluded, "If you have any questions about this request, please contact Committee staff at 202-225-4527. Thank you for your prompt attention to this request."
Read the full letter here.
