Health Department: Trump’s administration accuses Columbia University of fostering hostile environment for Jewish students

The Trump administration has accused Columbia University of allowing a hostile environment against Jewish students.

“The findings carefully document the hostile environment Jewish students at Columbia University have had to endure for over 19 months, disrupting their education, safety, and well-being,” said Anthony Archeval, Acting Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Caliber.Az reports per HHS' message. 

“We encourage Columbia University to work with us to come to an agreement that reflects meaningful changes that will truly protect Jewish students,” he said.

The university administration is accused of deliberately ignoring incidents of harassment, including a failure to respond to Nazi swastika graffiti found in classrooms and a lack of effective complaint mechanisms for anti-Semitic acts. Prior to this, the Trump administration reportedly pressured Columbia University to accept federal oversight to address these concerns, warning that failure to comply could result in reductions to government funding. In a related development, on May 22, the US Department of Homeland Security barred Harvard University from admitting foreign students. 

The department cited an unsafe campus environment where anti-American and pro-terrorist agitators were allegedly targeting individuals, including many Jewish students. These actions follow allegations that Harvard refused to cooperate with authorities by withholding information about foreign students critical of Israel and failing to discipline those making anti-Semitic statements.

By Naila Huseynova