By: Fern Sidman

In a move hailed by advocates for Jewish students as a long-overdue step toward accountability, Barnard College announced Monday that it had reached a landmark settlement in a federal lawsuit brought by Jewish and Israeli students who alleged pervasive antisemitic harassment on campus. The agreement, which includes sweeping policy changes and a public recommitment to a zero-tolerance stance on discrimination, was reported by The New York Times and marks a significant development in a wider reckoning facing elite universities nationwide.

The suit, originally filed in February 2024 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, was spearheaded by Students Against Antisemitism and the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice, along with several individual students. It alleged that Barnard and its affiliate institution, Columbia University, failed to protect Jewish students from a pattern of harassment, intimidation, and exclusion — particularly in the wake of a surge in pro-Hamas activism on campus following the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel.

While the litigation against Columbia University remains ongoing, the report in The New York Times confirmed that the settlement with Barnard includes a host of new safeguards designed to protect students from discrimination and ensure institutional accountability moving forward.

According to the plaintiffs, Jewish and Israeli students at Barnard faced an increasingly hostile environment beginning in late 2023, culminating in incidents of verbal abuse, exclusion from campus groups, and physical intimidation — including in dining halls and residence halls. Several students reported being harassed during protests organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a group that has led sustained demonstrations demanding institutional divestment from companies doing business with Israel.

A March 2025 sit-in at Barnard’s student center, which resulted in arrests, became a flashpoint in the litigation. Jewish students said that demonstrations frequently crossed the line from political speech into targeted harassment, a claim echoed in filings reviewed by The New York Times.

In announcing the settlement, Barnard President Laura Ann Rosenbury said the college remained “deeply committed to fostering a campus that is safe, welcoming and inclusive for all members of our community.” She added, “Antisemitism, discrimination and harassment in any form are antithetical to the values Barnard College champions.”

As reported by The New York Times, the settlement mandates the creation of a Title VI coordinator position — an office specifically tasked with overseeing and responding to complaints filed under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in federally funded programs. This new position will function parallel to the college’s existing Title IX office, and the coordinator will be required to deliver an annual public report on complaints and disciplinary outcomes.

The college also agreed to a series of specific reforms addressing protest activity and student conduct. Among the most notable is a prohibition on face masks at demonstrations — a tactic protestors have increasingly employed, which some Jewish students alleged was used to intimidate and conceal the identities of those engaged in harassment.

Additionally, the college pledged to strictly enforce regulations on the timing, location, and conduct of student protests, The New York Times reported. Barnard has committed not to engage with CUAD or its successor organizations, which it says have promoted policies and rhetoric that cross into incitement.

Importantly, the college also affirmed that it would not use its endowment for “political purposes,” explicitly rejecting calls to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks economic and academic pressure against the State of Israel.

Beyond disciplinary and procedural reforms, Barnard has committed to promoting greater inclusivity for Jewish students through academic access. Students will now be able to enroll in courses at the Jewish Theological Seminary — an affiliated institution — at no additional cost and for full Barnard credit. Anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training for faculty, students, and staff will now include mandatory modules specifically addressing antisemitism.

While The New York Times report noted that Barnard has historically taken a firmer approach to on-campus unrest than its sister institution Columbia, attorneys for the plaintiffs said the changes were long overdue. “These measures will go a long way toward ensuring that students can learn in an environment free from fear,” said attorney Marc Kasowitz, whose firm is representing Jewish students in multiple lawsuits against elite universities.

The Barnard settlement comes as similar cases play out across other elite institutions. New York University and Harvard University have already agreed to settlements following similar allegations, and The New York Times reported that a fourth case, against the University of Pennsylvania, was dismissed but is currently under appeal.

Meanwhile, Columbia University remains embroiled in both litigation and a crisis of credibility. In June, Columbia was formally warned by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education — its accrediting agency — that it is out of compliance with standards related to student safety and institutional governance. The warning came shortly after the U.S. Department of Education found that Columbia had acted with “deliberate indifference” toward the harassment of Jewish students, according to the report in The New York Times.

The university is also engaged in sensitive negotiations with the federal government over the restoration of more than $400 million in frozen research grants, which remain in limbo due to the discrimination investigations.

Despite the turbulence, Columbia has pledged to redouble its efforts. “Columbia is deeply committed to combating antisemitism on our campus and we will continue the important work of ensuring that Columbia is an open and inclusive place where students, faculty and staff from all backgrounds feel safe, supported and welcome,” a university spokesperson told The New York Times last week.

The Barnard settlement represents a milestone in a broader cultural and legal movement demanding that institutions of higher education do more to combat antisemitism. As elite colleges increasingly become battlegrounds for international political ideologies, Jewish students — often caught in the crossfire — are demanding meaningful protections and institutional accountability.

As The New York Times emphasized in its coverage, the agreement signals that silence and slow-walking are no longer tenable responses when discrimination occurs on campus. For Barnard, the question now is whether its promises will translate into a cultural shift and restored trust among its Jewish students.

And for Columbia, still in the legal crosshairs, the lesson may be even starker: act decisively, or risk losing not only credibility but accreditation.