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Trump Admin Intensifies Scrutiny of Universities Over Escalation of Virulent Campus Anti-Semitism

By: Fern Sidman

In a sweeping escalation of its campus oversight strategy, the Trump administration has issued formal warnings to 60 colleges and universities across the United States, cautioning that they could face penalties stemming from ongoing investigations into alleged anti-Semitism on their campuses. As was reported by The New York Times on Monday,  this move signals a marked intensification of federal intervention into higher education institutions accused of failing to protect Jewish students from discrimination and harassment.

The list of institutions receiving notice reflects a broad geographic and institutional range. According to the information provided in The New York Times report, it includes prestigious Ivy League universities such as Yale and Brown, large state universities such as Arizona State University and the University of Tennessee, and smaller liberal arts colleges such as Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania — an institution with approximately 2,000 students.

This latest development follows a high-profile decision by the Trump administration to revoke $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University. As noted in The New York Times report, the administration cited the university’s “inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students” as justification, although it has not publicly tied the funding withdrawal to any specific findings from three ongoing federal investigations into religious discrimination — all of which were initially opened during the final 14 months of the Biden administration.

The campaign to hold institutions accountable comes as American campuses continue to wrestle with highly polarized debates over the boundaries of anti-Semitism and the legitimacy of political protests surrounding Israel. The New York Times report indicated that these debates are often complicated by the fact that many student protestors critical of Israel’s policies are themselves Jewish — raising questions about whether expressions of political dissent are being conflated with religious discrimination.

President Trump, who repeatedly positioned anti-Semitism as a key talking point during his presidential campaign, appears to be leveraging these tensions to reinforce his administration’s commitment to Jewish students — and, as The New York Times report suggests, to draw a sharp political contrast with Democrats. Last week, Trump publicly warned that federal support would be rescinded from institutions that permit “illegal protests,” though he did not provide clarity on what would constitute illegality in this context.

In a dramatic and controversial move, the administration also invoked a rarely used legal provision to arrest Mahmoud Khalil, 30, a recent Columbia University graduate who had led campus protests. As The New York Times reported, the administration is seeking to deport the individual, although a federal judge in Manhattan has temporarily halted any removal proceedings, as of the time of this writing.

The heightened scrutiny is being driven in part by a newly formed anti-Semitism task force within the Trump administration. The task force initiated a “comprehensive review” of Columbia University’s federal contracts and grants on March 3, and the cancellation of funding followed just four days later. The symbolic and financial weight of the action has sent ripples through the higher education community, leaving institutions scrambling to reassess their campus policies.

The Education Department, now under the leadership of newly confirmed Secretary Linda McMahon, is also taking a more aggressive stance. During her recent confirmation hearing, Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican chairman of the Senate Education Committee, questioned McMahon about the department’s apparent backlog of unresolved anti-Semitism cases. Although McMahon admitted she was still familiarizing herself with the issue, the department announced — just four days after her confirmation — that it would be expediting the resolution of such investigations.

“The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless anti-Semitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better,”  Ms McMahon said in a statement on Monday.  “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.”

According to internal department records, there were already 40 active investigations into religious discrimination at the time President Trump assumed office. The New York Times reported that most of these cases were relatively new — opened within the previous 14 months — but they now appear to be part of a broader effort by the administration to portray itself as the defender of Jewish students amid what it frames as a crisis of campus intolerance.

Despite the public pronouncements and press releases, there remains a lack of transparency about the investigations’ progress. The online database that tracks federal investigations into colleges and universities has not been updated since Trump took office in January, as was explained in The New York Times report. An Education Department spokesperson declined to provide any details beyond what was shared in the official statement.

While the administration’s actions have been praised by some Jewish advocacy groups and conservative lawmakers, critics argue that the crackdown risks conflating anti-Israel sentiment with anti-Semitism in a way that could chill free speech and academic debate. Others express concern that the government’s approach is more political theater than principled policy — a calculated maneuver where campus politics and cultural flashpoints loom large.

Regardless of the intent, the Trump administration has made clear that it intends to continue tightening its grip on how universities handle matters of religion, speech, and protest. Whether this campaign will succeed in meaningfully improving protections for Jewish students — or merely deepening existing ideological divides on campus — remains to be seen.

 

 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