Harvard ends LGBTQ, first-gen tutor roles amid long-running fight over dorm space (2025)

For decades, students questioned why resident tutors occupied prime dorm space—with critics calling their presence 'excessive' and part of an 'academic advising labyrinth.'

Harvard University will eliminate residential proctors and tutors specifically tasked with supporting LGBT-identifying students and first-generation or low-income students, marking its latest retreat from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs.

The change, announced Aug. 18 by Associate Dean of Students Lauren E. Brandt, folds the tutors’ duties into a new “Culture and Community” role. According to a university document, tutors will now “foster cultivation of bonds and bridges to enable all members of our community to grow with and learn from each other.”

The Harvard Crimson first reported the development.

The restructuring comes as Harvard continues to dismantle or rename DEI offices across multiple schools. Brandt stated that the tutor reforms “reflect changes to partner offices and units over the summer which impacted some of the previously existing roles.” She added that the new position would “support event planning, amplify outreach, and increase student-driven programming.”

The elimination of these specialized tutor roles also connects to a decades-long debate about whether their presence in student housing is justified.

In 1993, Benjamin Heller argued in theCrimsonthat the system had grown bloated in an article titled “A Few Tutors Too Many.” In the last thirty years, he said, the number of resident tutors ballooned from a few to around 20 per house.

”I know that Harvard students are given to melodramatic exaggeration of their neuroses,” Heller said. “But retaining one full time resident tutor for every 20 students is excessive.”

Eight years later, another opinion piece again criticized the unchecked growth of the tutors. “They live in some of the best housing on campus—but do the jobs they do justify the resources devoted to them?” Scott Resnick asked, arguing for their downsizing.

”I can barely think of one person I know well whose academics have been affected in a major way by a resident tutor in his or her House,” Resnick continued. He defining the role of the tutors as merely another confusing component of “Harvard’s academic advising labyrinth.”

[RELATED: Under Trump-era pressure, Harvard is backing off DEI and being forced to protect Jewish students]

This shift follows mounting legal and financial pressure. In April, the Trump administration paused billions in federal funding, saying Harvard “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.”

In recent months, Harvard has rebranded or dissolved multiple DEI offices.

In May, its central DEI office was renamed the Office of Community and Campus Life. Former Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Sherri A. Charleston wrote at the time that the move would ensure “all within that community [realize] the benefits of learning, working, and living alongside others who come from various backgrounds.”

In June, Harvard Medical School renamed its DEI office the Office for Culture and Community Engagement. Dean George Daley explained the update “reflects Harvard’s ideals and priorities” and would emphasize collaboration and community-building.

[RELATED: Supreme Court allows Trump administration to cut $783 million in DEI-related research funding]

In July, Harvard’s Graduate School of Education eliminated its DEI office altogether, shifting to a “distributed model for DEI.” Administrators cited budgetary concerns as one reason for the change.

The most recent change now extends the restructuring into student life. Harvard College and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences also updated their websites to remove references to “diversity” and “equity,” while maintaining general commitments to fostering “a community where all of its members can thrive.”

Campus Reform has reached out to Harvard University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.