An article from Dive Brief Education Department warns 60 colleges it could take action over antisemitism concerns

The letters escalate the Trump administration’s scrutiny of how colleges are handling student protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

Published March 10, 2025 Natalie Schwartz Senior Editor

• post
• share
• post
• print
• email
• license

The U.S. Department of Education's building in Washington, D.C Greggory DiSalvo via Getty Images Listen to the article 5 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: 

• The U.S. Department of Education has warned 60 colleges via letters that it could take enforcement action against them if it determines they aren’t doing enough to protect Jewish students from discrimination or harassment, the agency announced Monday. 
• All 60 colleges — which include high-profile institutions like Columbia University, Yale University and University of Southern California – are under investigation by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. 
• The news comes only days after several federal agencies pulled $400 million of Columbia’s grants and contracts over concerns that university administrators hadn’t quelled antisemitism on campus. When announcing the move, the Trump administration threatened to take similar actions against other colleges. 

waitToLoadAds.push(function() { googletag.cmd.push(function() { if (window.dfp_visibility == 'mobile' ) { googletag.display('dfp-hybrid1-mobile'); googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function (event) { var adUnitPath = '/21662595662/highereddive/highereddivehybrid1'; var onProformative = false; if (onProformative && event.slot.getAdUnitPath() === adUnitPath && !event.isEmpty ) { var adUnitPathWithVisibility = adUnitPath + '-mobile'; var selector = '.pf-comments__ad-wrapper [data-container-ad-unit-id="' + adUnitPathWithVisibility + '"]'; if (!$(selector).closest('.pf-comments__ad-wrapper').hasClass('borders')) { $(selector).closest('.pf-comments__ad-wrapper').addClass('borders') } } }); } }); }); waitToLoadAds.push(function() { googletag.cmd.push(function() { if (window.dfp_visibility == 'desktop' ) { googletag.display('dfp-hybrid2-desktop'); googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function (event) { var adUnitPath = '/21662595662/highereddive/highereddivehybrid2'; var onProformative = false; if (onProformative && event.slot.getAdUnitPath() === adUnitPath && !event.isEmpty ) { var adUnitPathWithVisibility = adUnitPath + '-desktop'; var selector = '.pf-comments__ad-wrapper [data-container-ad-unit-id="' + adUnitPathWithVisibility + '"]'; if (!$(selector).closest('.pf-comments__ad-wrapper').hasClass('borders')) { $(selector).closest('.pf-comments__ad-wrapper').addClass('borders') } } }); } }); }); Dive Insight: 

The Education Department’s letters escalate the Trump administration’s scrutiny over the way high-profile colleges are responding to student protests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. The list of colleges include well-heeled private institutions, small liberal arts colleges and large public universities. 

Education Department warns 60 colleges about antisemitism concerns The agency’s list of colleges to which it sent letters !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r