(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Education sent a warning to the accreditor of Columbia University on Wednesday, saying the Ivy League institution violated federal anti-discrimination laws.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a press release that the decision came after the spate of protests on university grounds opposing the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
McMahon alleged Columbia leadership “acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students on its campus.”
“This is not only immoral, but also unlawful,” McMahon said.
Columbia is accused of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin, according to the department.
The department said that by violating federal anti-discrimination laws, Columbia has failed to meet the standards of accreditation that have been set by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
The government claims Columbia leadershup failed to take several actions, including failing to establish effective reporting mechanisms for antisemitism until the summer of 2024, failure to abide by its own policies and procedures when responding to Jewish students’ complaints as well as governing misconduct against Jewish students and not investigating or punishing vandalism in its classrooms.
Now, the university’s federal accreditor is required to establish a plan to come into compliance with the federal law or “take appropriate action against” Columbia, the department said.
ABC News has reached out to Columbia University for a comment.
This is President Donald Trump’s administration’s latest action taken against prominent universities, claiming they have fostered a breeding ground for harassment of Jewish students amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Last month, the Trump administration announced and then backtracked on a decision to bar Harvard University from allowing international students to enroll at the university.
Harvard is also fighting the Trump administration’s attempt to freeze more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to the school. Harvard filed a separate lawsuit to challenge the funding freeze in April, and the next hearing in that case is set for July.
Trump has also expressed interest in revoking the university’s tax-exempt status.
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