Trump issues new ban on international students at Harvard

Boston Globe

a day ago

Advertisement
In the second step earlier Wednesday, the Trump administration brandished a new weapon when it informed Columbia University's accrediting agency that the school has violated civil rights laws, triggering a process that could ultimately lead to Columbia forfeiting all federal financial aid for its students.
On the campaign trail last year, Trump
Colleges and universities must be 'accredited' by an independent association
to be eligible for the federal financial aid most students receive. And, although the accrediting agencies are private nonprofits, they operate only with the blessing of the secretary of education.
Advertisement
That gives the federal government significant leverage.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration told Columbia's accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, that the Ivy League school violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to protect Jewish students from discrimination and harassment during campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
Now, the department says Columbia must take steps to be in compliance with the Trump administration's interpretation of the law. If it doesn't, the commission must take action
against Columbia's accreditation, the department said, which could include stripping its accreditation.
'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 the press release Wednesday. 'We look forward to the Commission keeping the Department fully informed of actions taken to ensure Columbia's compliance with accreditation standards including compliance with federal civil rights laws.'
Higher education leaders on both sides of the political spectrum said the administration's latest threat was extraordinary.
'It's unprecedented because it's not telling accreditors, 'Here's a new standard you should follow,' ' said Larry Ladd, a former budget chief at Harvard. 'It's saying, 'You should take specific action against a specific institution.' '
Peter Wood, president of the conservative National Association of Scholars, said it would be 'wholly unprecedented' for an Ivy League university to lose its accreditation.
'But unprecedented doesn't mean it can't happen, we now know. I think it's out there as a pretty serious threat,' he said.
The announcement raises questions about the status of negotiations between Columbia and the Trump administration, and more broadly, about the strategy or wisdom of agreeing to the White House's demands. In March, after the Trump administration froze hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, Columbia said it would comply with a list of demands related to academics and disciplinary procedures.
Advertisement
In April, Harvard rejected an even more intrusive set of demands from the Trump administration and sued, setting up a confrontation that is now in its third month and has featured billions in cuts to its federal funding and threats to block the school's enrollment of international students, including Trump's Wednesday decree.
On Wednesday, McMahon told reporters, 'I'd love to have Harvard come back to the table to negotiate with us.'
The Trump administration is also investigating dozens of other universities and has cut funding at more than half a dozen elite schools.
Columbia's accreditor, the Middle States Commission, confirmed it had received a letter Wednesday from the administration, but declined to comment further. A Columbia spokesperson, Sean Savett, said the university is 'aware of the concerns raised by the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights today to our accreditor. . . . Columbia is deeply committed to combatting antisemitism on our campus. We take this issue seriously and are continuing to work with the federal government to address it.'
Trump officials have accused universities of
that campus culture has become intolerant of conservative viewpoints. They also allege universities failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitism stemming from the pro-Palestinian protest movement.
The head of the association that accredits Harvard, Lawrence Schall, said the administration's announcement was irregular and concerning.
Advertisement
'I think this just shows a misunderstanding of the accreditation process, a misunderstanding of the actual Department of Education regulations that pertain to accreditation,' said Schall, president of the New England Commission of Higher Education. 'Accrediting agencies are meant to be independent agencies. We're not the enforcer of federal law.'
Wood, who is generally supportive of Trump's higher education priorities, viewed Wednesday's announcement as a negotiating tactic.
'This is an opening move meant to bring the other side to the negotiating table,' or apply additional pressure, he said. It's likely to result in 'some kind of settlement short of losing accreditation, but it's a good chess move on the part of the administration,' he said.
Wood and other conservative higher education leaders have criticized accreditors for what they perceive as their commitment to progressive ideals, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion. Some accreditors mandate institutions maintain diversity polices. Trump officials and allies have said they would co-opt accreditors to advance their own priorities.
The announcement Wednesday, Wood said, 'brings pressure to bear on Columbia and also brings pressure to bear on Middle States and, by extension, all the other accreditors as well who may not be so keen to be the enforcement arm of the anti-DEI regime, but are suddenly finding themselves forced to take that step.'
Republicans publicly identified the accreditation system as a potential point of leverage over universities last year.
Steve Scalise, the second-highest-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, said at a meeting in Washington in October: 'We're taking away your accreditation. You want to get their attention? Party's over.'
And in a campaign video during the president election, Trump said,
'When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics. We will then accept applications for new accreditors, who will impose real standards on colleges once again and once and for all.'
Advertisement
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, which represents around 1,600 colleges and universities, said, 'The accreditors will, I'm sure, treat any violations of Title VI seriously, as they do in all such cases.'
However, he added, the federal government is required to resolve alleged civil rights violations through established federal procedures, not through the accreditation process.
'This is another case of the administration running ahead of the law for the sake of the headlines,' he said.
Mike Damiano can be reached at