The Evolution of Diversity at Harvard

The Trump administration has pulled funding for universities like Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, and is threatening to withhold federal dollars from public schools with diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Harvard is also fighting to retain its funding. On this week’s On the Media, hear how the distinctly American idea of “diversity” has fallen out of favor—from higher education to the Supreme Court.

Reporter Ilya Marritz explains how the Trump administration is cracking down on universities by pulling funding. Plus. how the history of Harvard and the concept of “diversity” is the hidden subtext for the Trump administration’s education policies. In the past half-century, the academy (and the business world) embraced the idea of diversity as a social good–an idea developed at Harvard and endorsed by the Supreme Court, until the latter ended race-based affirmative action in 2023. 

You can find earlier installments of Ilya’s reporting for The Harvard Plan, a collaboration with The Boston Globe, here.

Further reading/listening:

• The Harvard Plan: Part One
• The Harvard Plan: Part Two
• University presidents aren’t capitulating to Trump, they say. They’re ‘adapting.’ by Hilary Burns
• Trump is threatening Harvard with funding cuts in the billions. But what does he want the university to do? by Hilary Burns

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