Accreditors wield significant power in determining if universities can receive federal funding or even grant recognized degrees. Institutions of higher learning must follow the guidance and standards set in place by these organizations or risk losing their reputation, prestige, and educational standing.
Secretary Linda McMahon and her Education Department (ED) have now begun to use this to their advantage in their fight to ensure that Columbia University no longer allows antisemitism to run rampant on campus.
ED notified Columbia’s regional accreditor on June 4 that the university violated federal antidiscrimination laws for showing “deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students.” As a result, the department stated that the school failed to meet the organization’s standards for accreditation.
This is a smart move that opens the door to a new tool in the administration’s fight against discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April targeting accreditors for forcing universities to adopt DEI practices as well as obligating ED to provide these accreditors with reports of noncompliance from universities that fail to maintain respectable standards and obey federal laws.
America’s universities are divided into six regional accreditors. Columbia University’s accreditor is the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). ED explained that Columbia is no longer in line with MSCHE’s standards due to failing to show “compliance with all applicable government laws and regulations.”
The department determined that Columbia failed to protect Jewish students and subsequently denied these students “equal access to educational opportunities” – violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
ED has investigated Columbia in the past few months and previously stripped the school of $400 million in federal funding over the issue. If MSCHE chooses to deny Columbia accreditation for the foreseeable future, the university would likely lose eligibility to federal student loans and Pell grants.
When ED notifies an accreditor of a university’s failure to show compliance with federal law, the accreditor must inform the university and create a plan to correct course. The accreditor then must take further action if the university does not comply.
In recent years, accreditors have unfortunately functioned as bad actors forcing universities to embrace discriminatory DEI practices. Until Trump returned to office this year, accreditors encouraged and explicitly mandated in their standards for universities to adopt DEI initiatives or risk losing their accreditation. The MSCHE was no different with DEI ingrained in the organization’s standards for schools.
Despite these questionable actions from accreditors, they can be a tool to ensure that universities once again embrace merit rather than any other dubious standard for success or admissions. If accreditors work in good faith to follow Trump’s executive orders to eliminate DEI, the administration can then use these groups nationwide to eradicate discriminatory practices from all institutions of higher learning.
Using the issue of antisemitism at Columbia University is a great litmus test to see if accreditors are willing to work with the administration. Antisemitism is widely condemned across the political aisle with only far-left activists publicly dissenting for the most part. If accreditors prove to be trustworthy in this process, the administration can then collaborate with them to eliminate discriminatory practices as a whole.
The focus should not just be on Ivy League universities either. In March, ED released a list of 60 universities from coast to coast under investigation for allowing antisemitism on campuses. Additional great targets to hit with threats to accreditation would be the University of California system, Rutgers University, and Portland State University. These schools have embraced DEI recently while antisemitic protests plagued their campuses.
The Trump administration and more specifically ED are rightfully tackling DEI in higher education from every imaginable angle, and they must for any chance at restoring America’s education system to the prestige it once held. DEI is so embedded in the nation’s schools at this point that every potential solution is worth trying.
While accreditors have not always had the best interests of students or even faculty in mind, they may be the most powerful tool the administration has to eliminate DEI once and for all.
Casey Ryan is a writer and investigative reporter at Defending Education.
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