Ohio State is among 60 universities being warned to protect Jewish students or face potential, yet unspecified consequences by the U.S. Department of Education.
The warning comes as pro-Hamas protests and hate crimes against Jewish students escalate on college campuses across the country. Ohio State is already facing scrutiny for several antisemitic incidents on campus that resulted in a federal complaint being filed against the college last year, NBC4 News reports.
The U.S. Department of Education issued the warning in a letter sent Monday to 60 universities, including Ohio State and the University of Cincinnati.
The letter warns of potential law enforcement action if the universities do not protect Jewish students on campus under Title VI. However, the department did not detail what consequences the schools might face.
The letter also follows the Trump administration’s crackdown on Columbia University, which announced last week it was canceling $400 million in federal grants and contracts over “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students,” Ohio Capital Journal reported.
A spokesman for Ohio State told NBC4 News the university has yet to receive any letter and that hate of any kind will not be tolerated on campus.
However, several antisemitic incidents have been reported on Ohio University’s campus, resulting in the federal complaint being filed against the university, NBC4 News reported.
In April 2024, three prominent Jewish organizations filed a 20-page complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, accusing the university of inadequately addressing multiple incidents of harassment and violence against Jewish and Israeli students, NBC4 News reported.
Nationwide, the anti-Israel agitators continue to disrupt classes, incite violence, and create a hostile environment for Jewish students, including last week at Barnard College. The masked protestors took over the library and prevented students from attending classes, which resulted in several arrests, FOX News reports.
According to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, the letter is due to President Donald Trump’s executive order Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, signed on Jan. 29.
“The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement Monday.
In February, the department launched investigations into Columbia, Illinois’ Northwestern University, Oregon’s Portland State University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, over reports of “widespread antisemitic harassment.”
The department said Monday that the “55 additional universities are under investigation or monitoring in response to complaints filed with (the department’s Office for Civil Rights).”
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in educational institutions based on race, color, or national origin.
“University leaders must do better,” McMahon said in the release. “U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.”
The groups behind the Ohio State complaint are StandWithUs, an international nonprofit that describes itself as an “Israel education organization” and opponent of antisemitism; the Anti-Defamation League; and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
In the filing, the groups claimed that since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, antisemitism on and near campus has “run the gamut,” from targeted harassment of Ohio State’s Hillel Center to students being called antisemitic slurs and assaulted.
The groups’ complaint outlined more than a dozen antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents it said the university didn’t properly address, including:
- In late January 2024, a student living off campus reported that their mezuzah, a scroll containing passages from the Torah, had been torn from their doorpost and thrown on the ground
- In early February 2024, Jewish students eating Shabbat dinner at Hillel were allegedly interrupted by students shouting, “Free Palestine” and banging on the windows
- Multiple incidents of Jewish students being harassed on campus about the Israel-Hamas war
