The US administration has now made an attempt to strip Columbia University of its accreditation
The US administration is attempting to revoke Columbia University's accreditation, citing inadequate protection for Jewish students post-Hamas attacks. Secretary McMahon criticised its leadership for failing to address harassment.
The US administration has now made an attempt to strip Columbia University of its accreditation, stating that it failed to meet the criteria because of inadequate protection of Jewish students.
"After Hamas' October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, Columbia University's leadership acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students on its campus," stated US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon on Wednesday in a letter, per a BBC report. "Accreditors have an enormous public responsibility as gatekeepers of federal student aid," McMahon added in the letter, saying that Columbia's actions were “immoral” and “unlawful”.
The purpose of US accreditation is to determine which universities are allowed access to billions of dollars in federal funding.
US President Donald Trump also condemned Columbia and other US universities for failing to protect Jewish students amid the Israel-Gaza war and the protests undertaken by students on the campuses of US universities.
McMahon's letter informs the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which oversees Columbia that the latter "no longer appears to meet the Commission's accreditation standards" because of its alleged violation of anti-discrimination laws. The organisation is an independent accreditor that the government uses to determine how to allocate funds of the education department.
The letter also stated that the Columbia leadership "failed to meaningfully protect Jewish students against severe and pervasive harassment on Columbia's campus and consequently denied these students' equal access to educational opportunities to which they are entitled under the law".
In February, Trump had stripped Columbia of $400m in federal funding, after accusing the campus of antisemitism.
Columbia had cooperated with the Trump administration by addressing and implementing the changes demanded by the White House, and also reorganised its Middle Eastern studies department. However, the move did not appease the White House.
Another university embroiled in allegations of antisemitism and currently facing legal battles, because of federal funding, with the Trump administration is Harvard University.
