The Education Department announced Monday that it would conduct investigations at five universities where antisemitic harassment incidents have been reported.
The institutions being probed are Columbia University; Northwestern University; Portland State University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
The Education Department said in a news release that investigations respond to the “explosion of antisemitism on American campuses following the Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023.” It cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which protects individuals from discrimination based on national origin and applies to schools and institutions of higher learning that receive federal funding.
President Trump signed an executive order last week calling for aggressive action against antisemitism on college campuses, vowing to prosecute offenders and revoke visas for international students found to be “Hamas sympathizers.”
The department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, Craig Trainor, accused the Biden administration of failing to hold institutions responsible for tolerating “widespread antisemitic harassment and the illegal encampments that paralyzed campus life last year.”
At Berkeley, as has been the case at a number of universities, protesters demanded the university divest from Israel and an end to the war in Gaza.
Tensions have remained high at Columbia University over the Israel-Hamas war and the school’s response to protests on campus that have been taking place since early last year. At the end of last year’s term, the NYPD raided an encampment on the quad and dozens of student protesters were arrested. Columbia canceled its graduation. Columbia’s dean was forced to resign over her handling of the antisemitic protests.
contributed to this report.
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