Harvard University is facing backlash after activist Christopher F. Rufo released internal hiring documents. He alleged that the Ivy League school adopted discriminatory hiring practices against white men. The university reportedly deleted its official hiring guide from its website following the revelations — but not before it went viral.

Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a vocal critic of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, shared screenshots of the internal documents on X, formerly Twitter. He accused Harvard of implementing hiring goals that prioritise women and minorities to such an extent that it “punishes whites, men, and, especially, white men.”

“Harvard actually wrote a plan to increase the proportion of women and minorities in certain occupations to more than 90%,” Rufo posted. “It’s not about equal opportunity — it’s about punishing whites, men, and, especially, white men.”

CLAIMS OF BIAS TRIGGER QUESTIONS

According to the documents obtained by Rufo, Harvard set numerical targets for increasing minority and female hires in both faculty and administrative roles. In one instance, the university aimed to nearly sextuple the number of minorities in a department’s alumni affairs office and boost female assistants in the School of Public Health to over 90%.

Rufo said, “Harvard deliberately factors race into the hiring process. The university gives committee chairs privileged access to ‘self-identified demographic data, including gender, race, and ethnicity’ and encourages chairs to ‘use this information to encourage diversity in the applicant pool, long list, and short list.'”

The revelations have sparked concerns over possible violations of federal civil rights laws, particularly Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race or gender.

“This is extremely illegal, in case you are wondering,” Rufo wrote, adding that some programs function as “soft quotas,” despite Harvard’s denials.

After Rufo’s report went viral, the university quietly removed the controversial guide from its website. However, screenshots and archived versions are already circulating online. Rufo says his legal team is now in contact with federal civil rights officials.

“Our aim is to make Harvard pay a heavy price for brazenly violating the Civil Rights Act,” he said.