Many companies within the Trump presidency are teaming up to bite down on university campus protests and may deny federal funding from schools that don’t agree.
That followed a Monday discharge from the Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration that promised to end what they described as racist abuse on university campuses.
The combined discharge singled out Columbia University, an Ivy League school hit with a series of pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year that included the activity of a tower on school, for a review of governmental contracts and provides citing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The assessment could see the university lose more than$ 51 million in federal money, which it receives despite its reputation as a private college.
” Americans have watched in horror for more than a year now, as Israeli students have been assaulted and harassed on elite college campuses — frequently overrun by anti-Semitic individuals and agitators”, previously confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon said. ” Unlawful encampments and demonstrations have completely paralyzed day-to-day campus operations, depriving Jewish students of learning opportunities to which they are entitled”.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.compared antisemitism to racism and called it a spiritual and moral malady that sickens societies and kills people.
” In recent years, the censorship and false narratives of woke cancel culture have transformed our great universities into greenhouses for this deadly and virulent pestilence”, Kennedy said. ” Making America healthy means building communities of trust and mutual respect, based on speech freedom and open debate”.
Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 29 titled” Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism”, which led to the review.
Trump spends his political capital early in second term
Protests broke out across the United States following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, with some anti-Israel demonstrators blocking bridges and traffic and causing other disruptions.
Surgical masks, once a symbol of the COVID-19 pandemic, have been banned in many jurisdictions as people have used them to conceal their identities while committing acts of violence. Trump has now signaled he’d like to see them banned on college campuses as well.
