The Trump administration announced it is opening an investigation into four medical schools — reportedly including Harvard — over reports of antisemitic incidents at commencement ceremonies in 2024 and whether the schools acted with "deliberate indifference" to the outbreaks.
While Monday's announcement by Health and Human Services did not name the schools, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the medical schools at Columbia, Brown, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard are the targets of the investigations.
The compliance reviews by HHS' Office for Civil Rights will examine whether the medical schools "complied with their obligations" against discrimination.
"Every student deserves access to educational opportunities free from discrimination and harassment," said Anthony Archeval, acting director of the Office for Civil Rights at HHS. "These compliance reviews reflect our commitment to ensuring that institutions receiving federal funding maintain learning environments that are safe and nondiscriminatory for all students."
HHS said the "review will specifically examine whether the institutions acted with deliberate indifference regarding events that may have impacted Jewish students' rights to access educational opportunities and benefits."
The New York Post reported last week that antisemitic incidents during 2024 commencement ceremonies plagued more than half of the country's top 25 medical schools:
- Eight medical students wore "antisemitic or Offensive Stoles or Keffiyehs" at Columbia.
- At Harvard, students wore "three-part stoles consisting of the Palestinian flag, a keffiyeh and an empty map of Israel."
- Outside commencement at Brown, students chanted "from the river to the sea," words that signify the desire for the annihilation of Jewish people in Israel.
Columbia is also one of the schools being investigated by the civil rights division of the Department of Education. The DOE on Monday announced antisemitism probes into Northwestern, Portland State, University of California, Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, as well as Columbia, the Ivy League in New York City, that was beset by myriad antisemitic demonstrations last year, including the takeover of a campus building.
"Today, the Department is putting universities, colleges, and K-12 schools on notice: This administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the well-being of Jewish students on American campuses," said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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