The American Association of University Professors released a scathing report Monday accusing the Trump administration of using civil rights law to undermine academic freedom and institutional autonomy at colleges and universities nationwide.
Since October 7, 2023, the Department of Education has launched more than 60 Title VI investigations at colleges and universities, with investigations intensifying under the second Trump administration. The report argues these investigations often lack legal basis and violate due process requirements.
"The Trump administration has wielded Title VI with the goals of discrediting institutions of higher education, compromising academic freedom and institutional autonomy, and unmooring the Civil Rights Act from its foundational commitments," the report states.
Targeting DEI and Campus Speech
The AAUP report details how the administration has expanded Title VI enforcement beyond its original scope to investigate diversity, equity and inclusion programs and campus protests related to Israel and Palestine. Many investigations focus on "shared ancestry" claims involving Jewish students, often incorporating the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism that conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
A February 2025 "Dear Colleague" letter from the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights declared its intent to investigate colleges for DEI programs that allegedly "stigmatize students that belong to particular racial groups" and teach that some students "bear unique moral burdens that others do not."
The administration has also created a multiagency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism that bypasses normal Title VI procedures to threaten massive funding cuts without proper due process, the report alleges.
The report criticizes several universities that have reached settlement agreements with the federal government, including Columbia University's $200 million deal in July 2025. Under that agreement, Columbia agreed to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, restructure academic programs, decrease international enrollment, and accept external oversight of hiring and admissions.
"There has been no allegation—much less a finding—of noncompliance in the many parts of Columbia from which funding has been cut," Columbia law professors wrote in response to the settlement.
The Columbia University AAUP chapter called the agreement "the blunt instrument through which the Trump Administration has demonstrated its power to bludgeon American universities into undermining the traditions of free and open inquiry."
The AAUP and other organizations have filed multiple federal lawsuits challenging the administration's actions as unconstitutional violations of First and Fifth Amendment rights.
In one significant victory, federal District Court Judge Allison Burroughs issued a permanent injunction against the Trump administration's withholding of funds from Harvard University, finding that "the government-initiated onslaught against Harvard was much more about promoting a governmental orthodoxy in violation of the First Amendment than about anything else, including fighting antisemitism."
The report traces the AAUP's long history of opposing discrimination while defending academic freedom, dating back to support for desegregation in the 1950s. The organization has consistently argued that antidiscrimination efforts and academic freedom can and should coexist.
Title VI was originally designed to eliminate racial segregation in federally funded programs, with examples of discrimination focused on material barriers like unequal school budgets and facilities. The concept of "hostile environment" as evidence of discrimination developed later through court decisions in the 1980s and 1990s.
Recommendations for Institutions
The report concludes with seven recommendations for faculty, administrators, and governing boards, including:
- Refusing to comply with unlawful federal demands that impinge on academic freedom
- Publicly affirming commitment to defending academic freedom
- Rejecting "anticipatory obedience" such as eliminating programs or scrubbing websites
- Providing support for international faculty and students facing deportation threats
- Rejecting overly broad definitions of antisemitism like the IHRA definition
"Faculty members must remain stewards of knowledge for the good of the public—all of the public—not those who would deny or opportunistically exploit the complexities of free inquiry to suit their interests alone," the report concludes.
