HMC Quietly Removed Diversity Data from Internal Investment Tracker Weeks after Trump Demands

Harvard Management Company quietly scrubbed diversity data from its internal investment-tracking system in May 2025 as the Trump administration zeroed in on the University’s diversity programs, according to a person familiar with the matter.

HMC’s internal investment-tracking software, known internally as Crimson, previously included data fields recording the diversity characteristics of each fund. When employees added a new fund or tracked an existing investment, the system offered a drop-down field that allowed them to note ownership characteristics, including whether the fund was minority-owned or managed mainly by women. The diversity characteristics had been included in the interface since at least 2020, according to a former employee.

The system also records the name and type of each investment, the date HMC invested, the fund’s point of contact, and the size of HMC’s investment. It is not public andc is accessible only to HMC staff.

But last spring, HMC instructed employees to remove the diversity characteristics from the system entirely, the person said. While the information still exists in the database’s raw records, the diversity characteristics can no longer be viewed in the interface or entered into the system.

The change came weeks after Harvard rejected a list of demands from the Trump administration in April 2025 that called on the University to, among other things, dismantle its diversity, equity, and inclusion programming as a condition of continued federal funding. Hours later, the administration froze $2.2 billion in grants and contracts to Harvard.

HMC, which oversees the University’s $56.9 billion endowment, did not tell staff why it was removing the diversity characteristics, the person said.

HMC spokesperson Patrick S. McKiernan declined to comment on the interface change.

HMC discloses little information about the diversity of the firms that manage its money. The endowment announced in August 2020 that roughly 27 percent of the external asset management firms overseeing parts of the endowment were majority-owned by women and people of color.

The announcement came after two Democratic members of Congress asked Harvard and 24 other universities to disclose information about the diversity of their external asset managers.

HMC later reported that 26 percent of its active U.S.-based managers were majority diverse, representing about 19 percent of its externally managed capital, according to a 2024 study by the Knight Foundation and New York University Stern School of Business. HMC self-reported its data for the study, which covered fiscal year 2023.

The interface change is one of several DEI-related changes Harvard has made since Trump took office.

Harvard renamed its Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging to the “Office of Community and Campus Life” in late April 2025 — one week after the University sued the Trump administration over the funding freeze. A federal judge ruled in Harvard’s favor in September 2025, restoring the frozen funds.

Harvard cut back more DEI language and programming that summer. The Harvard Divinity School and Harvard School of Public Health both renamed their diversity offices in early July. The Harvard Business School removed advertisements for minority, women, and LGBTQ students from its website and changed staff titles to exclude the term “diversity and inclusion.” The Harvard Graduate School of Education laid off its chief diversity officer and closed its diversity office.

Later that month, Harvard also closed its Women’s Center, Office for BGLTQ Student Life, and Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, folding them into a new Harvard Foundation that operates under the Office of Community and Campus Life. The College shuttered the designated spaces for the Women’s Center and the Office for BGLTQ Student Life just over a month later.

HMC has absorbed some of the financial fallout from the federal government’s fight with the University, including an increase in the endowment tax rate to 8 percent from 1.4 percent. The tax hike, signed into law in July 2025, was projected to cost Harvard about $200 million.

—Staff writer Megan L. Blonigen can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at mblon.50. Follow her on X at @MeganBlonigen.