HHS’ Civil Rights Office Finds Columbia University in Violation of Federal Civil Rights Law

Extensive Investigative Findings Conclude that Columbia University Violated Title VI by Showing Deliberate Indifference to the Hostile Environment Faced by its Jewish Students

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that Columbia University violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI) by acting with deliberate indifference towards student-on-student harassment of Jewish students from October 7, 2023, through the present.

OCR enforces Title VI, which 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. OCR’s Notice of Violation articulates extensive factual findings that span a period of over 19 months in which the University continually failed to protect Jewish students. The findings are based on information and documents obtained during the investigation, including witness interviews; examination of written policies and procedures; reliable media reports that contemporaneously capture antisemitic incidents and events at Columbia University; and reports from Columbia University’s own Task Force on Antisemitism.

“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 Office for Civil Rights 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.”

The Notice of Violation comprehensively explains the ways in which Columbia University acted with deliberate indifference with regard to the hostile environment created by some of its students. For example, the University failed:

• To establish effective reporting and remediation mechanisms for antisemitism until the summer of 2024,
• To properly abide by its own policies and procedures when responding to Jewish students’ complaints,
• To abide by its only policies and procedures governing student misconduct against Jewish students,
• To investigate or punish vandalism in its classrooms, which include the repeated drawing of swastikas and other universally recognized hate images, and
• To enforce its time, place, and manner restrictions for protests held on campus, such as inside and around its academic buildings, residence halls, and libraries since October 7, 2023.

OCR’s Notice of Violation to Columbia is jointly issued and signed by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. This action demonstrates the Administration’s commitment to address “anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools[] . . . [to address] unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence,” as expressed in President Trump’s Executive Orders, Combatting Anti-Semitism (Dec. 11, 2019) and Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism (Jan. 29, 2025).

Today’s announcement is part of a broader effort by the Administration’s multi-agency Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism.

If you believe that you or someone else has been discriminated against because of race, color, national origin, disability, age, sex, or religion in programs or activities that HHS directly operates or to which HHS provides Federal financial assistance, you may file a complaint with the HHS Office for Civil Rights at: https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/filing-a-complaint/index.html

Follow HHS OCR on X (formerly Twitter) at @HHSOCR.