PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s administration vowed to expand its probes on college campuses beyond Ivy League institutions to other schools — including the University of California system — as the White House’s targeting of higher education intensifies.
Leo Terrell, who leads the Justice Department’s antisemitism task force, said the UC system should expect “massive lawsuits,” adding that universities “on the East Coast, on the West Coast, in the Midwest” are also likely to see legal action.
The University of California “abhors antisemitism” and is working to eradicate it across the system, said Rachel Zaentz, senior director of strategic and critical communications, for UC’s office of the president. She added that the institution is cooperating with the Trump administration. “The university remains entirely focused on strengthening our programs and policies to root out antisemitism and all forms of discrimination,” she said.
Terrell, who also serves as a senior counsel at the Justice Department, spoke shortly after the government directed agencies to start cutting off remaining federal funds to Harvard University, which has become the focal point of Trump’s fight against antisemitism and left-leaning politics on university campuses.
“We’re working on a full front of activity in the courtroom,” Terrell said Tuesday in a Fox News interview. “Trump is not going to be deterred.”
In the same interview, Terrell warned: “We are going to go after them where it hurts them financially.” He also specifically cited federal hate-crime charges and Title VII lawsuits, which focus on discrimination in hiring, as possible tools the administration could use.
The administration has pointed to widespread protests at major universities against the war in Gaza to argue that universities have created a hostile atmosphere for Jewish students.
As a public system, the California schools could be more susceptible to federal action on free-speech and civil-rights issues than private institutions like Harvard.
The University of California at Los Angeles saw some of the largest demonstrations and the school’s former chancellor, Gene Block, was one of several university leaders called to testify before Congress over its handling of the protests.
The Trump administration has launched multiple investigations into the 10-campus system, targeting its admissions practices, foreign funding disclosures and campus climate.
Federal agencies are reviewing whether UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Irvine violated the Supreme Court’s 2023 affirmative action ruling, and are probing UC Berkeley’s financial ties to overseas donors. The Justice Department has opened a civil-rights probe into UC over allegations that it supported an “antisemitic hostile work environment to exist on its campuses” for professors, staff and other employees.
UC Berkeley is also one of 60 US colleges and universities under investigation by the Department of Education over allegations of “antisemitic harassment and discrimination.” The system also includes six academic health centers and three national laboratories with 26,100 faculty, 47,700 academic positions and 192,400 staff members.
The Education Department released the list of universities in March that have been under investigation for antisemitism, including Yale University, Princeton University and Brown University. So far, Harvard and Columbia University have taken the brunt of the administration’s actions, with major research funding revoked.
Those moves, along with the administration’s efforts to revoke the visas of international students, have embroiled schools and students into protracted legal battles with the government. At Harvard, the Department of Homeland Security sought a sweeping measure to revoke the college’s license to admit and retain enrollees from abroad.
The president said over the weekend that the federal government was seeking information about foreign students enrolled at Harvard and that he believed that there were too many students from outside the US attending the school.
“This is going to be a battle in the courtroom,” Terrell said. “If it goes all the way to the Supreme Court, Trump is going to do that. That’s why the Department of Justice, that’s why the task force is here.”
A federal judge has temporarily halted the administration’s effort to block foreign visas for Harvard students while the court considers Harvard’s lawsuit to block it. –BLOOMBERG
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