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A federal judge in Boston on Thursday dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit that accused Harvard University of turning a blind eye to harassment of Jewish students. The decision from US District Judge Richard G Stearns said President Donald Trump's administration failed to prove an ongoing violation of federal civil rights laws. The judge said the lawsuit, filed in March, mostly focuses on incidents that took place in the 2023-24 academic year, with a few from March 2025. The cases were "too isolated and episodic" to prove a persistent civil rights violation at the Ivy League campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the judge said. Harvard and the White House did not immediately provide comment on the decision. The lawsuit accused Harvard of failing to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian demonstrations that roiled the campus after Hamas' October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. The Trump administration argued Harvard officials did nothing as Jewish students were "harassed, ...
At Harvard University, earning straight A's is about to get harder. Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that it would limit the number of A grades awarded to undergraduates, adopting one of the most ambitious efforts by a major university to curb grade inflation. The decision was made by faculty vote earlier this month. The move comes after top grades became so common that some Harvard faculty argued they no longer reliably distinguished exceptional work. More than 60% of all grades awarded to undergraduates in recent years were in the A range, according to university data cited by faculty members who supported the measure. Harvard is not the first elite university to confront grade inflation. Princeton University adopted a policy in 2004 to limit A-range grades to 35% of those awarded, though it abandoned the system a decade later after criticism that it disadvantaged students in competition for jobs and graduate school admission. Nationally, grade-point ...
The Trump administration escalated its fight with Harvard University on Friday, placing the Ivy League school under extra financial oversight and threatening sanctions if it does not provide additional data on its admissions practices. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the department was placing Harvard under heightened cash monitoring, forcing the school to use its own money to pay out financial aid for students and then seek reimbursement from the government. She also threatened further enforcement action if the school does not turn over records to prove it no longer is considering race in admissions. Harvard did not respond to a request for comment. The moves are part of the administration's crackdown on Harvard as President Donald Trump seeks to eradicate what he describes as liberal bias at colleges around the country. Since taking office, Trump has used the Education Department in unprecedented ways, cutting federal research grants for schools that do not accede to his .