Columbia failed to meet accreditation standards, US government says

Audio By Carbonatix

By Jasper Ward and Helen Coster

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Education said on Wednesday it has notified a university accreditation body that it believes Columbia University had violated federal anti-discrimination laws by its alleged failure to protect Jewish students on its campus. 

The alleged violation means that Columbia has not met the standards of accreditation set by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the department said.

“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,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Columbia, which has been under pressure from the Trump administration for months, said in a statement that the school addressed the department’s concerns directly with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and is continuing to work with the federal government to address antisemitism.

It was not clear how the Middle States Commission, which like other accrediting agencies is independent, would respond to the notification.

A spokesperson for Middle States declined to comment but confirmed that the organization had received a letter from the Department of Education about the matter on Wednesday. 

While the federal government does not directly accredit U.S. universities, it has a role in overseeing the mostly private organizations that do. Trump has often complained that accreditors approve institutions that fail to provide quality education.

Columbia has been the epicenter of a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student protest movement that has roiled U.S. campuses over the last year and a half as Israel’s war in Gaza raged.

The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services said last month an investigation found that the university had acted with “deliberate indifference” toward the harassment of Jewish students during campus protests.

Columbia had previously said it would work with the government to address antisemitism, harassment and discrimination.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Additional reporting by Helen Coster; Editing by Bill Berkrot)