Antisemitism at Columbia University grew as the Biden administration passed up an opportunity to address the problem, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) acting Chair Andrea Lucas told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.
Columbia agreed to a $21 million EEOC settlement in July to resolve alleged civil rights violations against Jewish employees, including a charge Lucas initially “teed up” while serving as a commissioner during the Biden administration.
“When I saw the rising flood of antisemitism, I filed a commissioner’s charge,” Lucas told the DCNF. “It’s a statutory tool that Congress gave each commissioner, but it has been rarely used by Republicans and much more used by Democrats. And so I launched that and it sort of floundered during the Biden administration.”
EEOC’s settlement came alongside a $200 million deal Columbia reached with the administration to settle discrimination claims. As part of the deal, Columbia agreed not to engage in racial discrimination in hiring, programs or admissions and to provide data ensuring commitment to “merit-based” hiring.
“While Columbia does not admit to wrongdoing with this resolution agreement, the institution’s leaders have recognized, repeatedly, that Jewish students and faculty have experienced painful, unacceptable incidents, and that reform was and is needed,” the university wrote in its announcement of the agreement.
Lucas called the agreement an “amazing whole-of-government-effort.”
WATCH:
Pro-Hamas demonstrations erupted on Columbia’s campus after the Oct. 7 terror attack, culminating in nearly two weeks of unauthorized encampments and the takeover of a campus building where an employee was reportedly held hostage. The university failed to discipline more than 100 students involved in demonstrations, a Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce report found in August 2024.
Emails later uncovered by the committee revealed some staff were “inspired by the students” and hoping to secure “some amazing wins for them.”
The university punished close to 70 students in July who were involved in protests during spring 2024.
“The Biden administration had every opportunity to take this kind of settlement, every opportunity to deal with this issue,” she continued. “And they didn’t. That vehicle was there, ready for them to do something with it.”
When Lucas took over as acting chair at the beginning of the Trump administration, she was able to move the charge forward and “supplement additional investigations” from other federal agencies, she told the DCNF.
Several agencies canceled grants and contracts to Columbia totaling $400 million in March over “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” Most canceled grants were reinstated as part of the university’s agreement with the administration.
The EEOC’s settlement, which is the largest in its 60-year history, is powerful because it goes directly towards victims, even if they don’t have attorneys, Lucas told the DCNF.
“That entire $21 million is going to be going towards people who were victims of antisemitism, who are affected by the hostile environment on Columbia’s campus,” she said. “None of it’s a fine. None of it goes to the EEOC. It’s really directly to victims.”
“All they have to do is reach out to the EEOC,” she said.
Columbia did not respond to a request for comment.
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