Trumps Education Department investigating five universities including Columbia over alleged antisemitic harassment as Bidens toothless efforts ripped

The US Department of Education is launching an investigation into five colleges, including Columbia University, over alleged “widespread” anti-semitic harassment following the tumultuous spring term where anti-Israel protests escalated on campuses countrywide.Under President Trump’s direction, the DOE will be probing Northwestern University, Portland State University, the University of California, Berkley and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities alongside Columbia — where the student encampment protests first sparked over Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza after Hamas’ Oct.7 attack.The anti-Israel demonstrations stretched from colleges in Maine all the way to Alaska and sometimes turned into violent clashes with pro-Israel counter-protesters at Columbia and the other schools under investigation.

“Too many universities have tolerated widespread anti-semitic 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,” said Craig Trainor, the Trump-appointed acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the DOE. “Today, 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,” Trainor added in a statement.The Department’s Office for Civil Rights is opening the investigation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which protects students from harassment based on their national origin and shared ancestry, according to a press release.

The probe follows through on an executive order Trump signed last Wednesday instructing federal agencies to identify “all civil and ...