Harvard, UPenn, Cornell, and MIT Face Potential Loss of Tax-Exempt Status

House Ways and Means Committee questions universities' handling of antisemitism and response to Hamas attack, demands response by Jan. 24.

The House Ways and Means Committee has suggested that Harvard University, along with the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, and MIT, could lose their tax-exempt status due to their handling of antisemitism on campus and their response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel.
The committee, led by Rep. Jason T. Smith (R-Mo.), has questioned whether these institutions are meeting the requirements to receive tax-exempt benefits, which are typically granted to universities as they are seen as providing a public good.
The universities have been given until Jan. 24 to provide information regarding their speech policies, tax records, funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, and their process for determining when to release a statement on current events.
This investigation comes in the wake of the resignations of former Harvard President Claudine Gay and former UPenn President Liz Magill, following their criticized testimonies at a congressional hearing on antisemitism on college campuses.
Harvard is also currently under investigation by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which has demanded extensive internal documents regarding concerns of antisemitism on Harvard’s campus and plagiarism allegations against Gay.