“As antisemitic activity has grown across the country, including on college campuses, there is no question that all of us need to do more. ACE has worked both with major Jewish organizations and our institutions over the past several years to address the very real problem of campus antisemitism with a shared conviction that Jewish students, staff, and faculty deserve to study and work without threat of harassment or discrimination.
We stand against antisemitism. Period. But the Trump administration’s decision last week to arbitrarily cancel some $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University is not the right way to fight hatred. Complaints against Columbia and any other institutions should be made, investigated, and if substantiated, addressed by appropriate sanctions. But at a time when all parties need to work together to stamp out hate, the administration’s action will only cause greater harm rather than addressing very real concerns—and not just to Columbia and its community. In the immediate term, this will indeed eviscerate academic and research activities to the detriment of all Columbia students and faculty, and of course it will do great harm to the medical patients and others who benefit from the vital work Columbia carries out every day. But we also are deeply concerned that unless the administration reverses course, it will move on to wrongly target research at other institutions, wreaking further chaos, confusion, and negative consequences. And none of this will do anything to protect Jewish students or meaningfully advance the goal of creating a campus free from antisemitism and other forms of hate.
ACE has worked collaboratively—and well before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and resulting war in Gaza—with major Jewish organizations to address campus antisemitism. We co-hosted with the American Jewish Committee and Hillel International the inaugural Summit on Campus Antisemitism for college and university presidents in April 2022, and held a second summit in September 2024. There, campus leaders heard from subject-matter experts on contemporary antisemitism, free speech, the requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and shared successful strategies for creating campuses free from antisemitism and other forms of hate.
Through this work and the ongoing collaborations that stemmed from it, we know what actions succeed in building campus communities where hatred is not tolerated. We also know that the federal government, through the existing and robust enforcement mechanisms centered at the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the Department of Education, can and should be critical partners in achieving these goals. OCR’s long-established processes ensure that the government and institutions work together in a fact-based and evidence-driven way to reach resolutions that serve all parties well. Undercutting this established process only creates chaos and confusion on college campuses, and ultimately harms rather than advances the effectiveness of campus work to protect Jewish and other students.
If the administration is truly committed to ensuring safe learning environments that are free from discrimination and harassment, then it will reverse this arbitrary, unlawful action. Instead, it will commit to working with higher education and our institutions in good faith to meaningfully address antisemitism.”