Harvard’s rebranded DEI office gets more cash than all DEI centers it replaced
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences David Deming claims that Harvard’s newly established Office for Community Culture (OCC) has more resources and former DEI programs.
The DEI office rebranded to a 'community' facing program is now requesting funding from alumni as The Harvard Foundation only provides resources to events 'open to all students.'
Harvard University’s newly established Office for Community Culture (OCC) now holds more funding and resources than all three of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices it replaced, Harvard Dean David Deming told The Harvard Crimson.
The OCC, which was launched earlier this year, absorbed the College’s former Women’s Center, BGLTQ Office, and Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations under a new sect of the office called the “Harvard Foundation.”
Calming the fears of students who believed DEI was being eradicated, Deming confirmed that the funding slotted towards the Harvard Foundation’s rebranded DEI programming is more than all three of the DEI centers it replaced.
Deming said that the OCC “has increased resources,” adding that Harvard is “still devoting the same amount of staff time” to the closed DEI centers. He also cited the new Harvard Foundation has hosted “14 events since January” boasting the early success and sustained attention of the OCC office.
While the OCC’s budget and staffing have grown, the funding structure for student groups has changed. The Harvard Foundation, now operating within the OCC, has made the move to only award grants to events “open to all students,” in this way masking the underlying DEI initiatives.
Student leaders say the shift has forced them to find new sources of funding.
The Harvard Crimson reports that several affinity groups have begun reaching out to alumni for financial support after losing access to certain Foundation grants for private or closed events. Many of these organizations had long relied on Foundation grants to host cultural celebrations and gatherings.
The restructuring marks Harvard’s broader move from DEI-specific offices to a single, “community” model.
The language on the Foundation’s site now emphasizes goals like “intellectual and personal growth” and “everyone benefits when all are welcomed, supported, and included.” This language differs from the Foundation’s prior focus on affinity-based programs.
Despite this restructuring, the OCC continues to promote public-facing events on topics of identity and inclusion. Recent programs have included “The Fight for LGBTQI+ Equality: Dispatches from the Front Lines,” a panel discussion on global LGBTQ+ rights movements.
[RELATED: UNLV diversity office pages vanish as school ‘restructures’ DEI programs]
Deming defended the consolidation of the offices in his comments to The Harvard Crimson, saying the change allows Harvard to strengthen its commitment to inclusion with more staff time and funding.
“We are still devoting the same amount of staff time and actually devoting increased resources to the activities around the Office of Culture and Community,” Deming said.
The rebranding of the DEI offices poses questions such as whether this is simply a defense against pressure from Donald Trump “who has repeatedly called on Harvard to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programming.”
Harvard’s quiet rebranding of DEI into “community” signals a calculated effort to preserve the same ideology under a new label.
Campus Reform has reached out to Harvard University and the Office of Community Culture for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
