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The Education Department warned 60 colleges and universities that they could face “potential enforcement actions” if they don’t comply with federal civil rights law that protects students from discrimination based on race or nationality, which includes antisemitism.
The department said in a news release Monday that the letter from the Office for Civil Rights went to colleges already under investigation for alleged violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 related to antisemitic harassment and discrimination. The letter, which was not released publicly, comes after the Trump administration canceled $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University, accusing the institution of “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” But that cancellation was through the administration’s antisemitism task force, not the Office for Civil Rights, which has a clear process for investigating complaints.
It was not immediately clear Monday what the purpose of the letter was beyond a general warning. The department recently told investigators at the Office for Civil Rights to prioritize clearing a backlog of complaints related to 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,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “University leaders must do better. 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.”
OCR hasn’t said what specifically the colleges are under investigation for, aside from violations of Title VI, which is common practice for the agency.
In the letter, officials remind colleges of their legal obligations under Title VI and advise institutions to “take all lawful and appropriate measures to protect Jewish students, faculty, and staff from the predations of antisemitic antagonists, whether in the classroom, on campus, or within educational programs and activities,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by Course Strat.
Although officials criticize the Biden administration’s handling of campus antisemitism, the letter doesn’t seem to articulate a markedly different approach. OCR under the former president found that several colleges’ responses to reports of antisemitic harassment didn’t comply with Title VI’s requirements. Most commonly, colleges failed to consider whether a broader hostile environment existed on campus for Jewish students as they responded to reports of harassment and discrimination individually.
OCR has said that a hostile environment is one that “limits or denies a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from a recipient’s education program or activity.”
“If a hostile environment based on shared ancestry exists, and the school knows or should have known about it, OCR will evaluate whether the school met its obligation under Title VI to take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to end the harassment, eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent harassment from recurring,” the letter says. “Schools that allow illegal activities and harassment that result in Jewish students losing equal access to school facilities are in violation of Title VI and will be subject to potential loss of federal funding.”
