60 colleges now face punishment over campus antisemitism claims

About 60 colleges and universities now face “enforcement actions” over claims of campus antisemitism, the U.S. Department of Education warned just a few days after yanking $400 million in grants from Columbia University over alleged civil rights infractions.

On Monday, the agency’s Office for Civil Rights sent letters to 60 institutions that are under Title VI investigation for antisemitic harassment and discrimination.

“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,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in an announcement. “U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.”

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The schools that received letters from the Office for Civil Rights include:

1. American University
2. Arizona State University
3. Boston University
4. Brown University
5. California State University, Sacramento
6. Chapman University
7. Columbia University
8. Cornell University
9. Drexel University
10. Eastern Washington University
11. Emerson College
12. George Mason University
13. Harvard University
14. Illinois Wesleyan University
15. Indiana University, Bloomington
16. Johns Hopkins University
17. Lafayette College
18. Lehigh University
19. Middlebury College
20. Muhlenberg College
21. Northwestern University
22. Ohio State University
23. Pacific Lutheran University
24. Pomona College
25. Portland State University
26. Princeton University
27. Rutgers University
28. Rutgers University-Newark
29. Santa Monica College
30. Sarah Lawrence College
31. Stanford University
32. State University of New York Binghamton
33. State University of New York Rockland
34. State University of New York, Purchase
35. Swarthmore College
36. Temple University
37. The New School
38. Tufts University
39. Tulane University
40. Union College
41. University of California Davis
42. University of California San Diego
43. University of California Santa Barbara
44. University of California, Berkeley
45. University of Cincinnati
46. University of Hawaii at Manoa
47. University of Massachusetts Amherst
48. University of Michigan
49. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
50. University of North Carolina
51. University of South Florida
52. University of Southern California
53. University of Tampa
54. University of Tennessee
55. University of Virginia
56. University of Washington-Seattle
57. University of Wisconsin, Madison
58. Wellesley College
59. Whitman College
60. Yale University

In February, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights launched Title IV investigations of Columbia and four other schools: Northwestern University, Portland State University, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. The 55 additional schools added to the list above “are under investigation or monitoring in response to complaints,” the Department of Education noted.

On Friday, the Trump administration canceled around $400 million in federal funds with Columbia University following its investigation into how the school handled campus antisemitism sparked by protests that erupted after the Israel-Hamas war. Cancelled contracts and grants span different federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education and the U.S. General Services Administration.

Columbia University currently holds more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments. More funding is at risk of cancellation, said Leo Terrell, head of the DOJ Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism.