Trump administration announced that Columbia University violated civil rights of its Jewish students

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Thursday that Columbia University violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act after charging it with acting with a deliberate indifference to numerous instances of harassment suffered by several Jewish students from Oct. 7, 2023, to the present. The agency, which detailed in a statement that the decision was made after an exhaustive investigation, determined that the academic institution failed to protect its Jewish students in the face of a "hostile" environment.

"The findings carefully document the hostile environment that Jewish students at Columbia University have had to endure for over 19 months, disrupting their education, safety, and well-being. We encourage Columbia University to work with us to come to an agreement that reflects meaningful changes that will truly protect Jewish students," OCR acting director Anthony Archeval said in the statement.

University failures

HHS explained that the Notice of Violation against Columbia University listed several failures, which included the absence of effective reporting and correction mechanisms for antisemitism until the summer of 2024, as well as failure to enforce its own policies when responding to student complaints. The agency also found that the university failed to comply with various student conduct procedures in cases of harassment of Jewish students, and even noted that the academic institution neither investigated nor sanctioned acts of vandalism in its own classrooms, which included hate symbols such as swastikas. Likewise, HHS detailed that Columbia University failed to enforce time, place and manner restrictions on political demonstrations on its own campus, including those in and around both residence halls and academic libraries and buildings since October 2023.

Title VI prohibits all institutions receiving federal funds from discriminating on the basis of national origin, color, race, and even discrimination based on Israeli or Jewish identity or ancestry. HHS detailed in its release that the findings spanned more than 19 months, and that the investigation included policy review and even eye-witness interviews.