WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Education Department on Monday warned 60 colleges and universities they could face repercussions if they fail “to protect Jewish students on campus.”

In a statement announcing letters to schools across the country, the department did not detail what consequences the schools could face, but the letters came less than a week after the administration announced that it would be canceling roughly $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University over “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

President Donald Trump and his administration have focused on curbing antisemitism on college campuses after a series of campus protests erupted last year in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s counteroffensive.

Immigration authorities over the weekend arrested and detained a former Columbia graduate student who helped organize campus protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza. The student, Mahmoud Khalil, is a lawful permanent resident and was not accused of immigration violations. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio conflated Khalil’s protests of the war in Gaza with support for Hamas to rationalize the arrest.

Columbia University is listed as one of the schools that received the letter warning they could be in violation of Title VI, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in institutions receiving federal funding.

“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,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement 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,” said McMahon, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in last week.

Antisemitism initiatives

The letters came after Trump’s executive order in late January, which focused on “additional measures to combat anti-semitism.”

Pursuant to that order, the administration announced in early February the creation of a multi-agency task force to “combat anti-semitism” and whose first priority would be “to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”

In February, the department launched investigations into Columbia, along with Illinois’ Northwestern University; Oregon’s Portland State University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; over reports of “widespread antisemitic harassment.”

The department said Monday that the “55 additional universities are under investigation or monitoring in response to complaints filed with (the department’s Office for Civil Rights).”

The 60 public and private schools that were sent letters 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; Wellesley College; Whitman College and Yale University.

They also include the universities of California Davis; California San Diego; California Santa Barbara; California Berkeley; Cincinnati; Hawaii at Manoa; Massachusetts Amherst; Michigan; Minnesota, Twin Cities; North Carolina; South Florida; Southern California; Tampa; Tennessee; Virginia; Washington-Seattle; Wisconsin, Madison.

Last updated 4:50 p.m., Mar. 10, 2025

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