The Trump administration warned 60 universities on Monday that they could face penalties from pending investigations into antisemitism on college campuses, a threat sharpened in recent days by its cancellation of funding to Columbia University and the arrest of a protest leader there.
The list of five dozen schools included colleges from both Republican- and Democratic-voting states, elite Ivy League schools such as Brown and Yale, state schools including Arizona State University and the University of Tennessee, and smaller institutions, like Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., which has about 2,000 students.
President Trump seized on accusations of antisemitism as a cudgel against Democrats during his presidential campaign and has continued to prioritize the issue from the White House. Mr. Trump’s push comes as college campuses are embroiled in debates over what, precisely, constitutes antisemitism and whether that definition should include protests against Israel — even as many of the protesters themselves are Jewish.
Last week, Mr. Trump threatened to strip funding from schools that allow “illegal protests,” but did not elaborate on what he meant by that phrase.
His administration has also canceled $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University for what it said was “inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” The Trump administration has not said whether that decision was based on a particular finding from any of the three investigations into religious discrimination that were opened during the last 14 months of the Biden administration.
Instead, Mr. Trump’s new antisemitism task force notified Columbia on March 3 about a “comprehensive review” of the school’s federal contracts and grants. The administration announced that it was pulling $400 million from the school four days later.
