Experts warn that colleges could experience a chilling effect to free speech after federal officials announced investigations into antisemitic harassment and discrimination on dozens of campuses.
Sixty schools — including the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa — are under investigation by the Department of Education for events that followed the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023.
Letters from the Department of Education to the schools accuse them of violations of Title IV of the Civil Rights Act.
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In the letter to USF, officials said "antisemitic protestors and antagonists have harassed and committed violence against Jewish students—denying them equal access to educational programs and activities."
If schools are found to have violated Jewish students' rights, the Department of Ed could cut their federal funding -- like it's already done with Columbia University.
On Friday, the Trump administration canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia.
Tyler Coward is the Lead Counsel for Government Affairs for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
He said while universities have a responsibility to protect students from harassment and discrimination, they also should protect free speech.
"Right now, we’re seeing both colleges and the federal government put their thumb on the scale in favor of censorship of politically protected speech, and that is exactly the wrong message we should be sending to our students," Coward said.
The letter sent to USF by the Department of Education does not go into how the school violated Title IV.
But in an email to WUSF, USF Director of Media Relations Althea Johnson said antisemitism is not welcome on campus.
"In advance of the Fall 2024 semester, we updated our policy on discrimination and harassment to explicitly prohibit antisemitism, along with all other instances of hateful expression targeting individuals because of their religion, shared ancestry or cultural heritage," Johnson said.
"USF is currently participating in Hillel International’s flagship Campus Climate Initiative, a training and engagement initiative for college and university administrators, designed to address the rise of antisemitism on campuses."
Eric Cardenas is the Assistant Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs for the University of Tampa. In an email to WUSF, he said UTampa received their letter because of a Department of Education Office of Civil Rights review of an incident between two students in September 2023.
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"The incident was resolved through the student conduct process. The University has fully complied with the OCR review to date," Cardenas said.
"UTampa is committed to being an inclusive learning community, and condemns any form of discrimination, racism or any other form of hate."
The Trump administration has targeted pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. Shortly after returning to office, Trump signed an executive order saying he would deport "pro-jihadist" protesters.
In addition, a recent graduate student at Columbia University was arrested over the weekend by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers after taking part in protests against the Israel-Gaza war.
Critics like Coward call decisions like this unconstitutional, saying that
universities should have clear and consistent policies for all student protests and speech.
"If there is evidence that the institution is enforcing some policies against some student groups while allowing other student groups to get around those policies, that itself is evidence of viewpoint discrimination," Coward said.
"These investigations paired with the administration’s reliance on an unconstitutional definition for what constitutes as antisemitism creates worry that the administration is going to require universities to censor politically protected speech by the First Amendment."
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