The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights sent a letter to sixty higher education institutions on Monday warning them of “potential enforcement actions” if they don’t comply with actions under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The Civil Rights Act of 1963 prohibits any institution receiving federal funds from discriminating based on race, color and national origin, which includes Jewish students.
“The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a release.
The release also states that the letter was shared to U.S. universities already under investigation for Title VI violations relating to “antisemitic harassment and discrimination.”
In January, President DonalTrump signed an executive order coined “Additional Measure to Combat Anti-Semitism,” which led to the creation of a multi-agency task force to “root out anti-Semetic harassment in schools and on college campuses.” The department launched an investigation into five universities and expanded to 55 more after complaints were filed.
This release also follows the wake of the Trump Administration cancelling around $400 million in federal grants and funding to Columbia University, citing inaction of protecting Jewish students from discrimination. Last week, U.S Immigrations and Customs Enforcement arrested a Columbia University graduate student with a green card for leading pro-Palestine protests; a move the Department of Homeland Security deems “anti-semitic.”
“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said in a Truth Social Post.
However, the constitutionality behind Trump’s “anti-semitism” orders remain unanswered.
Universities that receive a letter from the Office for Civil Rights include:
- American University
- Arizona State University
- Boston University
- Brown University
- California State University, Sacramento
- Chapman University
- Columbia University
- Cornell University
- Drexel University
- Eastern Washington University
- Emerson College
- George Mason University
- Harvard University
- Illinois Wesleyan University
- Indiana University, Bloomington
- Johns Hopkins University
- Lafayette College
- Lehigh University
- Middlebury College
- Muhlenberg College
- Northwestern University
- Ohio State University
- Pacific Lutheran University
- Pomona College
- Portland State University
- Princeton University
- Rutgers University
- Rutgers University-Newark
- Santa Monica College
- Sarah Lawrence College
- Stanford University
- State University of New York Binghamton
- State University of New York Rockland
- State University of New York, Purchase
- Swarthmore College
- Temple University
- The New School
- Tufts University
- Tulane University
- Union College
- University of California Davis
- University of California San Diego
- University of California Santa Barbara
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of Cincinnati
- University of Hawaii at Manoa
- University of Massachusetts Amherst
- University of Michigan
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- University of North Carolina
- University of South Florida
- University of Southern California
- University of Tampa
- University of Tennessee
- University of Virginia
- University of Washington-Seattle
- University of Wisconsin, Madison
- Wellesley College
- Whitman College
- Yale University
