WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Education is investigating five universities, including the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where anti-Semitic harassment has been reported under an executive order from President Donald Trump.
The other schools are Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University and University of California Berkeley.
The investigations are in response to “the explosion of antisemitism” on American campuses following the Hamas massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023.
“Too many universities have tolerated widespread antisemitic harassment and the illegal encampments that paralyzed campus life last year, driving Jewish life and religious expression underground. The Biden Administration’s toothless resolution agreements did shamefully little to hold those institutions accountable. The Department is putting universities, colleges, and K-12 schools on notice: this administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish students on American campuses, nor will it stand by idly if universities fail to combat Jew hatred and the unlawful harassment and violence it animates,” U.S. Department of Education Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said.
The Department of Education says the investigations build upon the work of the House Committee on Education and Workforce finding “university administrations overwhelmingly failed to protect or support their Jewish students even making astounding concessions to illegal, anti-American encampments.”
