The Trump administration turned its fight with Columbia University up to “11” on Wednesday when the Education Department advised the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), an organization that grants academic accreditation to colleges and universities, that Columbia University violated Title VI for allegedly tolerating harassment of Jewish students after the October 7 attack in Israel.
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“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,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “This is not only immoral, but also unlawful.”
The administration canceled $400 million in federal grants to the school in March and has been engaged in negotiations that would restore at least some of that funding. Columbia is balking at some of the conditions being imposed by Washington, including reforming admissions to reduce the emphasis on race, nor will the school put its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) department under “academic receivership” for a minimum of five years, as the administration demanded.
In late March, Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, resigned after a leaked transcript revealed she had no intention of obeying Trump administration demands to reform. She was the second Columbia president to resign in seven months.
MSCHE was informed by the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of Columbia’s violations and reminded that “by federal regulations, accreditors are required to notify any member institution about a federal noncompliance finding and establish a plan to come into compliance.”
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“If a university fails to come into compliance within a specified period, an accreditor must take appropriate action against its member institution,” the letter from OCR said.
MSCHE was already in the process of investigating Columbia on its own.
Chronicle of Higher Education:
Heather Perfetti, president of the Middle States Commission, said in an email that the organization is reviewing the letter from the department. “Consistent with our commission’s management of investigative findings,” Perfetti wrote, “we will process these findings in accordance with our policies and procedures.”
Perfetti said the accreditor has already begun looking into Columbia’s response to the charges of antisemitism. On May 16, the accreditor sent a request to Columbia for information on meeting several standards, including those for ethics and integrity, supporting the student experience and governance, and administration. Commission representatives have also visited the campus, and the commission is scheduled to review Columbia’s response at a meeting later this month.
Wednesday’s letter is the latest of many steps the administration has taken to try to punish Columbia and numerous other selective colleges over what it has deemed antisemitism and other kinds of discrimination on campuses.
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Columbia is not going to lose its accreditation. However, forcing the school to defend itself with its accrediting organization is one more way to ratchet up the pressure on school administrators and the board of governors, who must be tired of the obstinacy of the university’s leadership.
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The letter to the Middle States Commission from the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights is a shot across the bow to these powerful accrediting organizations. No college or university can survive without its seal of approval. Without being accredited by one of these organizations, a university would be unable to tap into federal student loans or other federal funding.
In April, Trump issued an executive order that seeks to bar accreditors from setting standards for diversity, equity, and inclusion; make it easier for institutions to change accreditors; and expedite federal approval of new accreditors.
But it’s unusual for the Education Department to try and enforce an alleged civil-rights violation through accreditation, said Przypyszny, the lawyer, since accreditors are usually tasked with ensuring that colleges comply with the rules for disbursing federal financial aid.
Accreditors don’t have any independent way to determine if a college has violated antidiscrimination laws, he said, and they usually have to accept the determination of another agency, such as a federal Office for Civil Rights or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
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Middle States Commission might find Columbia “out of compliance” and place the school on probation, allowing the school to take up to two years to develop new policies and procedures to bring it back into compliance.
The dizzying number of accrediting organizations makes it impossible to police the accrediting process fully, but perhaps this is a good place to start getting rid of the rot in higher education.
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