1,600 Harvard Alumni Petition to Reverse Restrictions on Admissions Interview Reports

More than 1,600 Harvard alumni signed a petition urging Harvard to rescind restrictions barring alumni interviewers from referencing an applicant’s race, ethnicity, or religion in their reports before the fall 2026 admissions cycle.

The petition, sent Sunday to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William “Bill” R. Fitzsimmons ’67, and Director of Admissions Joy St. John, argued that the restrictions have “crippled” alumni interviewers’ ability to perform their roles and “gravely disserved student applicants.”

The effort was spearheaded by the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, an alumni group founded in 2016 that has pushed Harvard to maintain its commitment to diversity and inclusion in admissions.

The petition marks the latest escalation in a months-long campaign by alumni opposed to recent changes to the handbook governing alumni interviews. Their objections have surfaced in private meetings and correspondence with admissions officials, and most visibly, at this year’s Miller-Hunn Awards ceremony, where two honorees used their acceptance speeches to protest the changes.

The petition links to an earlier letter from eight alumni to Fitzsimmons, St. John, and University attorney Ara Gershengorn. The letter followed an April meeting between the three administrators and members of the Coalition, during which the alumni raised concerns about the restrictions on interviewers. Fitzsimmons responded by requesting that the Coalition send documents it had prepared, including excerpts of interviews and surveys it had conducted showing widespread discontent with the guidelines.

A Faculty of Arts and Science spokesperson declined to comment on the petition.

The letter also includes comments from several alumni elected in May to Harvard leadership boards, including newly elected Overseers Alfredo Gutierrez Ortiz Melan, Philip Harrison, and Salvo Arena, and Harvard Alumni Association elected directors Jimmy Biblarz, Mia Alpert, and David Lefer.

At least one current Schools and Scholarships officer signed the petition: William Loren Gary, identified as the Harvard Club of Alabama’s Schools and Scholarships chair on its alumni-interviewer recruitment page. Schools and Scholarships committees oversee Harvard’s alumni interviewing program, including recruiting and interviewing College applicants.

Barbara Koh ’81, a member of the Coalition who signed the petition, said alumni interviewers she has spoken with feel they must “contort their words” to comply with the new guidance.

“These interviewers feel constrained,” Koh said. “They’ve already been told you can’t mention race, ethnicity, religion, language spoken at home, national origin, immigration situation, so how do you have a conversation to fill out the written application with this human being in front of you.”

The petition also cites a January letter to Garber from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which argued that Harvard was “likely” engaging in racial and national origin discrimination through the policy. (In a statement, an LDF spokesperson said that the organization remains “deeply concerned by recent changes to Harvard College’s alumni interviewer policies.”)

Opposition to the changes spilled into public view in June at this year’s Miller-Hunn Awards ceremony, which honored alumni for volunteer work supporting undergraduate admissions through recruitment and interviewing.

Two of the nine recipients, Jane S. Bock ’81 and Jeannie Park ’83, referenced the handbook changes in their acceptance speeches. Both are members of the Coalition and wore shirts invoking causes related to diversity and ethnic studies.

Bock and Park revealed the shirts beneath their blazers as they rose to deliver their speeches. Bock’s read “Our unity is our strength, diversity is our power,” while Park’s read “ethnic studies now.”

In prepared remarks, Bock tied the handbook changes to broader efforts by the federal government to wipe diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at universities.

In April 2025, the Trump administration sent Harvard a letter with a list of demands that included the elimination of any diversity-adjacent programing. Though Garber publicly refused to comply with the demands, the College has since shut down its diversity offices, while graduate schools have rebranded their diversity offices.

Fitzsimmons told attendees at the ceremony that Harvard was “playing the long game,” in an apparent reference to the volley of attacks from the White House, according to one award recipient.

The petition also included an email from Bock, who worked as an undergraduate minority recruiter while at Harvard, a program that was shuttered in May 2025. She called Fitzsimmons “the most powerful force for change at Harvard” in her prepared remarks.

“Who else would react to my protests at his office in the ‘70s by encouraging me to put my critiques in writing and giving me a job?,” she wrote.

Fitzsimmons told attendees that alumni interviews and the quality of interviewers’ report was more important than ever, according to two event attendees.

Harvard College Dean David J. Deming also spoke to the alumni at the event, where he defended the Faculty of Arts and Sciences restructuring, which has imposed a five-day in-person work requirement and laid off more than 10 percent of College staff.

“Anything you do of substance will always get you pushback,” he said, according to an event attendee.

A FAS and College spokesperson declined to comment on Fitzsimmons and Deming’s remarks.

Concerns about the restrictions have also extended beyond the Coalition.

Clinton Marrs ’79, who served as the chair of the Schools and Scholarships committee for the Harvard Club of New Mexico, said prohibiting interviews from using certain words that are “taboo” made little sense in a diverse state like New Mexico.

“After all of these decades, I find it so ironic that we’ve now entered a world in which we have taboos,” Marrs said. “There are words that are now taboo words, and we’re not supposed to use those in our report.”

At the ceremony, Fitzsimmons said he expected to see a larger number of students from New Mexico in incoming classes, according to an attendee, echoing comments he made in April about expanding Harvard’s recruitment pipeline in the South.

The Miller-Hunn award ceremony, named after Hiram S. Hunn, Class of 1921, and retired admissions officer Dwight D. Miller ’71, honored nine alumni volunteers this year. Miller, who attended the ceremony, previously served as the admissions officer responsible for New Mexico and admitted Marrs to Harvard.

—Staff writer Celine Muir can be reached at [email protected] or Signal at celinem.33. Follow her on X @celinemuir1.

—Staff writer Alexa M. Schmitt can be reached at [email protected] or Signal at alexaschmitt.15. Follow her on X ​​@alexa_m15_s.