Trump admin threatens accreditation of Columbia University

The most recent protest was in May when about 100 students occupied Butler Library during finals. Several of them were escorted out by police and arrested. At least 65 of the students involved were suspended. Other students who engaged in violent protests were expelled or had their diplomas revoked.

The accreditation review was started on Wednesday despite the university's compliance with Trump administration requirements. The school has already lost $400 million in federal funding and now stands to lose their ability to survive as an institution of higher education in the United States.

The school is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and confirmed that they received the note from the DOE challenging the accreditation of the centuries-old school. The school, the DOE said, is "in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws and therefore fails to meet the standards for accreditation set by the Commission."

The school is older than the United States and was founded in 1754. Four US presidents attended Columbia: Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Barack Obama, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

International students who engaged in Gaza encampments and on-campus protests, espousing terrorist views against the nation of Israel and Jews, have already faced tough repercussions from the Trump administration. Some have had their visas revoked and are facing deportation.

The Trump administration had previously determined that the school had acted "with deliberate indifference toward student-on-student harassment of Jewish students" after the Hamas massacre of 1,200 carried out on October 7, 2023. The school had said that many persons unaffiliated with the school participated in the protests. A protester who was linked to Hamas was not a student at the school.

In a statement to Axios, a Columbia spokesperson said that the school is "deeply committed to combating antisemitism on our campus. We take this issue seriously and are continuing to work with the federal government to address it."

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said that the leadership of the school, which has changed twice in the past year, "acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students on its campus."

She went on to say that "Accreditors have an enormous public responsibility as gatekeepers of federal student aid. They determine which institutions are eligible for federal student loans and Pell Grants. Just as the Department of Education has an obligation to uphold federal anti-discrimination law, university accreditors have an obligation to ensure member institutions abide by their standards."