Columbia failed to meet accreditation standards, US Government says

WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Education said on Wednesday it has notified a university accreditation body that Columbia University had violated federal anti-discrimination laws by its alleged failure to protect Jewish students on its campus.

The violation means that Columbia has not met the standards of accreditation set by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the department said.

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"Accreditors have an enormous public responsibility as gatekeepers of federal student aid. They determine which institutions are eligible for federal student loans and Pell Grants," U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.

The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Columbia has been the epicenter of a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student protest movement that roiled U.S. campuses over the last year and a half as Israel's war in Gaza raged.

The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services said last month that an investigation found that the university had acted with "deliberate indifference" towards the harassment of Jewish students during campus protests.

Reporting by Jasper Ward

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