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Malay Mail
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Trump targets Harvard over antisemitism claims, threatens to pull all federal funding
WASHINGTON, July 1 — US President Donald Trump's administration said on Monday that an investigation had concluded Harvard University violated federal civil rights law for failing to address harassment of Jewish and Israeli students, though critics and some faculty say such probes are a pretext to assert federal control over schools. The announcement could lay the groundwork for further action against the school, which has already seen billions of dollars in grant money frozen by the administration as part of a broader campaign against Harvard and other universities across the country. Universities have said Trump's actions threaten academic freedom and free speech, as well as critical scientific research. The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights accused Harvard of 'deliberate indifference' toward discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students, according to a notice from the administration. The department outlined a series of harassment incidents and faulted Harvard's response for being 'too little, too late.' 'Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources,' lawyers for the administration wrote in a separate letter to Harvard President Alan Garber that was viewed by Reuters. The result of the probe was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. In a statement, Harvard said it had taken 'substantive, proactive steps' to address antisemitism on campus, including updating its disciplinary processes and expanding training on antisemitism. 'Harvard is far from indifferent on this issue and strongly disagrees with the government's findings,' the school said. Monday's letter is the latest in a multi-pronged assault that Trump has waged against Harvard, the nation's oldest and wealthiest university, after it rejected sweeping demands to alter its operations. The administration has frozen some US$2.5 billion (RM10.5 billion) in federal grant money to Harvard, moved to block it from enrolling international students and threatened to remove its tax-exempt status. Harvard has filed lawsuits challenging those moves. In addition to targeted funding freezes at specific schools, the administration's cutbacks at agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health have also resulted in terminated grants to research universities. The president has taken particular aim at Harvard and Columbia, two of the nation's most prominent universities. Earlier this year, the administration said it had terminated grants and contracts to Columbia University worth US$400 million, accusing the school of not protecting students from antisemitic harassment during massive campus protests against the Israel-Gaza war, which included some Jewish organisers. Civil rights groups in response have said the contract cancellations lacked due process and were an unconstitutional punishment for protected speech. However, Columbia agreed to negotiate with the administration over demands that the school tighten its protest rules. The school's interim president, Katrina Armstrong, stepped down days later. In May, the Trump administration concluded that Columbia had violated civil rights law by failing to address antisemitism, just as it did on Monday regarding Harvard. Earlier this month, Trump's Department of Education said Columbia had failed to meet accreditation standards by allegedly failing to protect Jewish students from harassment. Other schools have also become targets for the pressure campaign. On Friday, the president of the University of Virginia, James Ryan, resigned under pressure from the Trump administration over the school's diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Last week, the Trump administration announced it would investigate hiring practices at the massive University of California system — which enrols nearly 300,000 students — to examine whether they run afoul of anti-discrimination law. — Reuters
Washington Post
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Trump administration notifies Harvard of alleged civil rights violations
The Trump administration notified Harvard University on Monday that a federal investigation had found the school in violation of federal civil rights law for failing to protect Jewish students on campus from discrimination. A letter from the administration's Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism to Harvard's president, Alan Garber, said that an investigation by the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services had concluded that the school was in 'violent violation' of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The letter alleges that in some cases the university had been deliberately indifferent, and in others has been 'a willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff.'
Fox News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Trump admin alleges Columbia violated civil rights law with 'deliberate indifference' to campus protests
The Trump administration on Thursday accused Columbia University of having violated federal law through its "deliberate indifference" toward anti-Israel protests that have been taking over the campus since Oct. 7, 2023. Investigative findings from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) allege that Columbia's handling of "student-on-student harassment of Jewish students" over the past 19 months violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. HHS said Title VI "prohibits a recipient of Federal financial assistance from discriminating in its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, or national origin, which includes discrimination against individuals that is based on their actual or perceived Israeli or Jewish identity or ancestry." HHS alleged that Columbia "continually failed to protect Jewish students" by allowing the "hostile environment created by some of its students" to continue. The Ivy League's campus has been a major hotspot for anti-Israel and pro-Hamas protests and gatherings since the terrorist group launched its attack on Israel in October 2023. In the months since, campus buildings have been taken over or damaged by large groups of people chanting antisemitic phrases and demanding that the university divest from Israel. The OCR's Notice of Violation alleged that Columbia "failed" to combat antisemitism in various ways, including by not properly abiding by its own policies and procedures when responding to complaints from the Jewish student population or when governing student misconduct towards Jewish students. HHS said it took the university until summer 2024 to "establish effective reporting and remediation mechanisms for antisemitism." Even then, the university is accused of not investigating or punishing vandalism – such as swastikas and other hate images – in classrooms. The office also said the university did not enforce its own time, place and manner restrictions for on-campus protests, especially in academic buildings, residence halls and libraries. "The findings carefully document the hostile environment Jewish students at Columbia University have had to endure for over 19 months, disrupting their education, safety, and well-being," said Anthony Archeval, Acting Director of the OCR at HHS. "We encourage Columbia University to work with us to come to an agreement that reflects meaningful changes that will truly protect Jewish students." Thursday's announcement comes one day after a few Columbia graduates set their diplomas on fire in protest of former student Mahmoud Khalil's detention. Khalil was arrested by immigration agents in March and is at risk of being deported by the Trump administration after he was accused of leading the anti-Israel movement at Columbia. Columbia is also down $400 million in federal funding after the Trump administration slashed budgets at universities accused of mishandling antisemitism on campus. Fox News Digital has reached out to Columbia University for a response to the OCR's findings. The school told The New York Times in response to the findings that it plans to work with the Trump administration to combat antisemtism on campus. "We understand this finding is part of our ongoing discussions with the government," a spokesman told the paper.
CNN
23-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Trump administration accuses Columbia University of violating federal civil rights law by failing to protect Jewish students
Human rights Education policyFacebookTweetLink Follow The Trump administration alleged Thursday that Columbia University violated federal civil rights law by acting with 'deliberate indifference' towards harassment of Jewish students on campus since October 2023. The US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights accused Columbia of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal funding. CNN has reached out to Columbia University for comment. The accusation came as elite universities across the US, including Columbia, face the threat of funding cuts from the Trump administration. This is a developing story and will be updated.
Washington Post
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
US to accept white South African refugees while other programs remain paused
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will welcome more than two dozen white South Africans to the United States as refugees next week, an unusual move because it has suspended most refugee resettlement operations, officials and documents said Friday. The first Afrikaner refugees are arriving Monday at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press. They are expected to be greeted by a government delegation, including the deputy secretary of state and officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, which has organized their resettlement under its Office for Refugee Resettlement.
