The investigation, announced Monday, follows President Trump's executive orders against antisemitism and will reportedly look into Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and the University of California, Berkeley.
Zachary Marschall, editor-in-chief of Campus Reform, thinks the department has good reason for singling out these institutions.
"I think they picked these because these are the notorious ringleaders and instigators of the antisemitic wave we saw starting after October 7th," he tells AFN. "These are universities that had the most high-profile antisemitic incidents and ongoing protests at their universities in 2023 and 2024. So, I think this is a great place to start."
The protests at Northwestern and the University of Minnesota – which has a history of anti-Israel and anti-American scholarship and activism – have been, in Marschall's opinion, "the most vile." Berkeley was the site of an apparent pogrom, where violent protesters drove Jewish students out of an event through an underground tunnel.
New York City's Columbia, Marschall adds, is "ground zero for all of this."
The atmosphere there is reportedly "very contentious," with protests of the Modern Israel class being held on Colombia's first day of the semester.
"A handful of protesters sabotaged that class because they were trying to get rid of the Zionists in the room," Marschall reports. "Since then, Columbia stepped up security measures on campus."
Marschall fired off complaints to Feds
In response to his Title VI complaint, Tufts University in Massachusetts is also under investigation. The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights let him know it would look into "whether the university failed to respond to alleged harassment of students based on national origin (shared Jewish ancestry) in a manner consistent with the requirements of Title VI."
Title VI is a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.
Marschall tells AFN he made 33 complaints of this nature between 2023-2024, and this is the 15th institution to be investigated as a result.
"I was kind of surprised that it came in," he says of Tufts. "I submitted this complaint almost a year ago."
In that time, Marschall has not seen the atmosphere improve or decline on that campus, but he does think the overall situation is getting better for Jewish students in higher education.
"Universities are cracking down on these violent and illegal protests with more force and speed than they were in the last year," he observes. "I would hope that trend also applies to the Jewish students at Tufts."
As the waiting game ensues, Marschall reiterates there have been three policy changes over the course of a year, so he encourages patience in this "long game to fight antisemitism."
"I feel good that … the department is taking the active measures to root out antisemitism," he says.
He calls the Trump administration's strong stance against antisemitism a positive development and a welcomed change from the Biden's approach to the issue.
