The U.S. Department of Education on Monday sent a letter to Binghamton University and 59 other institutions of higher education warning of “potential enforcement actions” if their obligations to protect Jewish students are not met under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

All 60 colleges and universities that received letters from the department’s Office for Civil Rights are presently under investigation for antisemitic harassment and discrimination.

“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,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “University leaders must do better.”

“U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers,” she continued. “That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.”

Last year, the Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into BU after reports of allegedly “failing to respond” to antisemitism on campus. The editor-in-chief of the conservative media outlet Campus Reform, Zachary Marschall, filed the complaint. Marschall, who is unaffiliated with the University, also filed complaints against other schools, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Northwestern University.

“[BU] does not tolerate antisemitism or discriminatory acts directed at any individual based on their race, religion, national origin or other protected categories,” a University spokesperson wrote to Pipe Dream at the time. “The University is fully cooperating with the Department of Education.”

The University did not return a request for comment regarding the recent letter.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.”

With the recent federal action, which has included an executive order called “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism” and the creation of a task force housed in the Department of Justice, the Office for Civil Rights began investigations into five universities on Feb. 3 that have received reports of antisemitic harassment: Columbia University; Northwestern University; Portland State University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

The executive order reads: “It shall be the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”

The Trump administration’s actions have already been felt. Columbia University, one of the administration’s top targets, last Friday lost $400 million in grants and contracts from four federal agencies following “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” In February, the Justice Department task force announced visits to 10 campuses — including Columbia — where it said antisemitic incidents had occurred since October 2023. Pro-Palestinian encampments were created at all ten campuses last year.

Over the weekend, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained a recent Columbia graduate, Mahmoud Khalil, who played a central role in the university’s wave of student-led protest.

Students at BU, led by the Divest from Death coalition, established an encampment on the Peace Quad last May. It was disassembled on its third day ahead of a 5 p.m. deadline set by administrators.

University President Harvey Stenger thanked the students in an email to the campus community for peacefully disbanding “their encampment at the conclusion of their exemption period.”

The New York College Democrats and four of its chapters — including BU’s — released a statement on Instagram Tuesday night, saying the Trump administration was not interested in fighting antisemitism but rather in clamping down on academic freedom and political discourse.

“By equating legitimate expressions of political criticism in the form of peaceful protests, with harassment and discrimination, the administration is dangerously eroding core principles of academic inquiry and free expression,” it reads. “We continue to support students’ right to peaceful, non-discriminatory protest against the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza.”