U.S. Department Of Education’s Office For Civil Rights Sends Letters To 60 Universities Under Investigation For Antisemitic Discrimination And Harassment

“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,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “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.”

The schools that received letters 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

The Department’s OCR sent these letters under its authority to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964), which prohibits any institution that receives federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color, and national origin. National origin includes shared (Jewish) ancestry.

Pursuant to Title VI and in furtherance of President Trump’s Executive Order “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism,” the Department launched directed investigations into five universities where widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported. The 55 additional universities are under investigation or monitoring in response to complaints filed with OCR. Last week, the Department, alongside fellow members of the Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism including the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. General Services Administration, announced the immediate cancelation of $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University due to the school’s continued inaction to protect Jewish students from discrimination.

The OCR directed its enforcement staff to make resolving the backlog of complaints alleging antisemitic violence and harassment, many which were allowed to languish unresolved under the previous administration, an immediate priority.