This week, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights sent letters to 60 universities across the country, placing them under investigation. According to the department, these letters served as warnings of potential enforcement actions against universities “if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus.”
This came shortly after the Trump administration canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts at Columbia University as a result of the Ivy League’s alleged failure to address antisemitism on campus during pro-Palestine protests.
“Universities must comply with all federal anti-discrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus.”
Ahead of the decision, President Trump threatened to stop “all federal funding for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests.” He also added that “agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.”
Though Trump has yet to define “illegal protests,” because of the president’s threats paired with the administration’s focus on student pro-Palestine protests, many Americans have concerns for their First Amendment rights which guarantee freedom of speech. Especially following the recent arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident and Columbia student who Trump reportedly called a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student,” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 8.
Though a federal judge has blocked the administration’s attempt to deport Khalil, his case could be the first of many under the Department of Education’s investigation. From Ivy Leagues to state schools, both large and small, the schools that have reportedly been placed under investigation 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
