DOE says Columbia should be stripped of accreditation over ‘indifference’ to antisemitism on campus

Columbia University should be stripped of its accreditation over its “deliberate indifference” to the harassment of Jewish students on campus, the US Department of Education said Wednesday.

In a letter to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, an accrediting institution that Columbia belongs to, the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights accused the Ivy League school of allowing antisemitism to run rampant at its Morningside campus.

“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,”  DOE Secretary of Education Linda McMahon wrote in the memo.

“If a university fails to come into compliance within a specified period, an accreditor must take appropriate action against its member institution,” the department added.