TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Donald Trump administration has warned Columbia University, New York, United States, for allegedly violating anti-discrimination laws. The alleged violation is because Columbia University is considered to have failed to protect Jewish students from severe and ongoing harassment on campus.
In a press release on Wednesday, June 5, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services found that on May 22, 2025, Columbia University was indifferent to the harassment experienced by Jewish students. These two institutions assessed that Columbia University did not take decisive steps, causing Jewish students to lose equal access to educational opportunities as guaranteed by the law.
These findings are directly related to the 1964 Civil Rights Act provisions, which prohibit any federally funded institution from discriminating based on race, color, or national origin. In this case, the government believes that Columbia has failed to fulfill its obligations as an educational institution supported by federal funds.
The U.S. Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, stated that Columbia University had ignored the ongoing harassment of Jewish students since the outbreak of the conflict between Israel and Gaza on October 7, 2023. She added that failing to address the situation violates applicable federal law and goes against moral values.
The findings were then forwarded to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, a regional accreditation body overseeing Columbia University. This body is responsible for ensuring that all its member institutions, including Columbia, comply with accreditation standards that encompass compliance with federal law, including civil rights law. McMahon hopes that the Accreditation Commission can actively work to ensure that Columbia University reverts to compliance with accreditation standards, including protecting students' civil rights.
In March 2024, students at Columbia University held pro-Palestine protests on campus. They set up a camp on campus as a form of protest. Several students involved in the protest were arrested by security forces, including two widely known student activists, Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi. Although they have been released, they and Khalil still face legal proceedings that could potentially lead to deportation. The Trump administration openly accuses these demonstrators of creating an unsafe situation for Jewish students, though the student leaders deny these allegations.
In response to the warning, Columbia University stated its commitment to combat anti-Semitism on our campus. "We take this issue seriously and are continuing to work with the federal government to address it," Columbia said in its release on June 4, 2025.
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