E.E.O.C. Sues Harvard for Data on Diversity in Hiring Practices

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asked a federal judge to compel Harvard to hand over records in the agency’s investigation into what it described as “systemic discrimination” in the university’s employment practices, particularly against white men.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts, the E.E.O.C. accused the university of noncompliance, escalating a legal battle that has been brewing for more than a year, court filings show.

Lawyers for Harvard have called the E.E.O.C.’s investigation part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to bring the university to heel. “The government has not concealed that its all-out campaign targets Harvard for the assertion of its constitutional rights,” the lawyers wrote in a June motion, which the agency included in the lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

Harvard’s lawyers noted that Andrea Lucas, the Republican chair of the E.E.O.C., filed her civil rights charge against Harvard in April 2025, four days after the university sued the federal government for freezing $2.2 billion in funding.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/business/economy/harvard-eeoc-diversity-hiring.html