Photo by Aubrey Carr | The Crow’s Nest
By Mahika Kukday
A letter sent to the University of South Florida on March 10 by the U.S. Department of Education threatened “potential enforcement actions” if the university doesn’t take action to protect Jewish students on its campuses.
USF, the University of Tampa and 58 other higher education institutions are currently under investigation by the department’s Office for Civil Rights.
The Department of Education claimed these actions are in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and in advancement of President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to combat antisemitism.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said that federal funding for universities is a “privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.”
A copy of the letter obtained by The Crow’s Nest states that since the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, “Americans watched in shock as mobs of campus malcontents erected encampments, occupied buildings, and spit on, threatened, assaulted, and blocked Jewish students from going to class or traveling about campus freely.”
Courtesy of Althea Johnson
Sylvie Feinsmith is the executive director of Hillels of the Florida Suncoast, which includes chapters at USF, UT and Florida Southern College.
When asked if the Jewish community at USF had experiences similar to those mentioned in the letter, she said in an email statement to The Crow’s Nest, “many altered their routines, avoided certain areas of campus, and concealed their Jewish identity to escape confrontation or harassment.”
Feinsmith added that since the Oct. 7 attacks, Jewish students at USF faced “a very real climate of fear,” and were harassed in their dorms, faced antisemitic remarks in class and “endured extreme gaslighting from community members and people in positions of authority who sought to downplay or dismiss their concerns.”
However, she feels that the university has made meaningful progress in addressing antisemitism on campus. USF’s partnership in Hillel International’s Campus Climate Initiative will help improve relations with USF Hillel and build understanding to combat “the world’s oldest hatred,” according to Feinsmith.
In an email statement, USF spokesperson Althea Johnson said the university had updated policies regarding discrimination and harassment, and on-campus events to “avoid disruptions to the learning environment and campus operations.”
The Department of Education’s letter explicitly refers to the time period following the Oct. 7 attacks, during which a UN Special Committee found Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza to be consistent with genocide, and directly mentions the encampments erected by student protesters.
USF caught widespread attention last year when police arrested three pro-Palestine protestors at the Tampa campus on April 29. A group of students formerly known as the USF Divest Coalition also went on a two-week-long hunger strike the month prior, in an attempt to convince the USF Board of Trustees to stop investing in corporations that provide funds to Israel.
On April 9, 2024, a video posted to the USF Student Government Instagram account by a student leader urged the student body to take a political stance, making a bold statement. In it, former SG Student Body President Cesar Esmeraldi urged the SG Senate to vote against the USF Divest Resolution.
Shortly after, Jewish organizations at USF put out a statement aligning with Esmeraldi. It read that the resolution was “deeply antisemitic” in nature and had false and misleading material.
The resolution, which eventually passed with just one tie-breaking vote according to The Oracle, encouraged USF to divest from certain companies and publish its investment portfolio.
Five universities are currently under direct investigation by the Department of Education for “widespread antisemitic harassment.” These include Columbia University, Portland State University, and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where students held some of the country’s most publicized pro-Palestine protests.
The Palestinian student activist who led Columbia’s protests was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last week, according to the AP. Twenty-seven people faced criminal charges after a weeklong sit-in at the Portland State Library in May 2024.
The Department of Education letter specifies that $400 million in federal funding was revoked from Columbia University on March 7 “because of that school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
“This federal investigation validates what Jewish students have been saying all along,” Feinsmith said. “Antisemitism on college campuses is a real and urgent issue that cannot be ignored.”
