Columbia University on Wednesday released a survey that found nearly two-thirds of its Jewish students said they didn’t feel accepted for their religious identity.
That became apparent since the school became the epicenter of nationwide on-campus anti-Israel protests following the Iranian-backed Hamas’ terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip.
The university said the survey by its Task Force on Antisemitism was distributed to 35,000 students in June 2024, and 9,000 responded by September 2024.
The survey found that 62% of Jewish students either disagreed or strongly disagreed when asked if they felt accepted for their religious identity, compared with 53% of Muslim students, 13% of Christian students, and 11% of students with other religious affiliations.
“We knew we would find the results disturbing, but we also knew that such information would be necessary in order to move forward,” Columbia President Claire Shipman wrote Wednesday in a letter to “members of the Columbia community.”
“Indeed, the results — that in the 2023-2024 academic year a majority of our Jewish students felt they were not accepted here because of their religious identity — confirm the undeniable and painful reality that we failed to adhere to our values and failed to meet the expectations we set for our campus community.
“We are also dismayed to learn that a majority of our Muslim students felt a distinct sense of alienation and lack of well-being. We can and we must do better.”
The report, the task force’s third before it issues its final one, also found that although 50% of respondents said they felt a sense of belonging at Columbia, only 34% of Jewish students agreed, with 46% saying they disagreed or strongly disagreed with that statement.
“As a proud alumna who has spent decades championing this institution, I found the results of this survey difficult to read,” Shipman wrote. “They put the challenges we face in stark relief.
“The increase in horrific antisemitic violence in the U.S. and across the globe in recent weeks and months serves as a constant, brutal reminder of the dangers of anti-Jewish bigotry, and underscores the urgency with which all concerned citizens need to act in addressing it head-on and the fact that antisemitism can and should be addressed as a unique form of hatred.”
Columbia is among several higher education institutions being scrutinized by congressional Republicans and the Trump administration over alleged incidents of on-campus antisemitism since Hamas massacred more than 1,200 Israeli citizens and took about 250 others hostage in its attack in southern Israel.
In March, the Trump administration canceled approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia, citing the university’s failure to address antisemitic harassment of Jewish students. The administration specified nine demands as a precondition for restoring the funding. Later that month, Columbia reportedly acquiesced to most of the administration’s demands, including banning face masks on campus, allowing some security officers to remove or arrest individuals, and ending the faculty’s control over the department that offers courses on the Middle East.
In May, the Offices for Civil Rights for the Health and Human Services and Education departments found that Columbia violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by “acting with deliberate indifference” toward harassment of Jewish students since Hamas’ terrorist attack.
And on June 4, the Education Department notified Columbia’s accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, that the university no longer met accreditation standards because of its failure to protect Jewish students. Although no immediate loss of accreditation occurred, the notice raised the possibility of probation or further action if noncompliance persisted.
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