People walk on the Business School campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, April 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Faith Ninivaggi

Universities continue to adapt to the Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign students, research financing, DEI, and other forms of bias. Columbia University has been at the epicenter of the administration’s ire. In July it announced that its offerings in the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Departments would be unchanged despite decades of criticism regarding the tendentious nature of courses and faculty. In 2025 the administration had demanded the department be placed under receivership but the university refused. This was one of the factors that resulted in the suspension of Federal research grants, at which point the university agreed to a “thorough review” of the department.

In a similar subterfuge, a court filing by Harvard highlighted the university’s response to campus antisemitism by citing the hiring of an anti-Israel professor, a course taught by a BDS supporter who has accused Israel of ‘genocide’, and other pro-Palestinian activities.

The University of Pittsburgh released its long awaited report on antisemitism, commissioned after campus protests, vandalism and harassment in 2025. The report included a series of now standard recommendations regarding antisemitism training, incident response, and Title VI oversight.

Reed College reached a settlement with the Brandeis Center over two Title VI complaints. The university agreed to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, strengthen antisemitism training for students, and improve other campus policies to protect Jewish and Israeli students.

Faculty delegitimization of Israel continued in July. In Australia, more than 100 academics signed an open letter demanding that Professor Matthew Champion return the Dan David Prize, one of the world’s largest and most prestigious history prizes. The letter claimed that accepting the prize would legitimize “the ongoing normalization of the genocide and scholasticide in Palestine.”

California faculty are at the forefront of an effort to have the state’s ‘time, place and manner’ regulations regarding student protests repealed. The California Faculty Association, which represents faculty across the 23 California State universities, announced it would support a measure introduced to repeal SB 1287. The new measure bypassed normal public hearings and was opposed by the University of California and Jewish organizations. The association made a similar unsuccessful effort to repeal the state’s K-12 antisemitism law in March.

Faculty members also continue to push back against disciplinary procedures instituted as a result of participation or leadership of violent campus protests. In one example, a former Northwestern professor alleged that the institution denied him tenure after he participated in a 2024 protest that many found abhorrent. The professor’s lawsuit alleges that the university and the Federal government effectively conspired to deprive Thrasher of his academic freedom and violated his employment rights in order to “to manufacture consent for their participation in the Zionist colonial project in Palestine.”

In response to the general problem of foreign students who remain in the US indefinitely regardless of enrollment status, the Department of Homeland Security announced new regulations limiting student visas to four years. New restrictions were also announced regarding student ability to change majors and institutions. Higher education representatives condemned the move as unfair and warned it would damage the country’s “economy and global competitiveness.”

Foreign students have provided leadership to anti-Israel movements, sometimes on a professional basis, as well as providing numbers in support of demonstrations and encampments. Efforts by the State Department to deport key organizers have been controversial and have been slowed by repeated lawsuits. An appeals court overturned a lower court ruling and found that a pro-Hamas organizer could be deported. The student will again appeal the decision.

In contrast, Mahmoud Khalil, who has been ordered to be removed from the country by a Federal court, filed a lawsuit alleging a public-private conspiracy suppress criticism of “Palestine”  and deprive protestors of their rights.

Testimony before the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion regarding antisemitism at Australian universities detailed the abuse endured by Jewish students including verbal and physical threats. Similar incidents were reported by faculty members. University administrators appearing before the commission apologized for their inaction with one stating they had just “learnt just how menacing and threatening many found the encampments.”

A new report has detailed how a movement linked to the Population Front for the Liberation of Palestine has expanded its influence in particular on campus through alliances with the Palestinian Youth Movement, US Palestinian Community Network, Students for Justice in Palestine, Within Our Lifetime, and others.

During the summer K-12 educators hold trainings, conventions, and other events. Antipathy towards Israel remains a centerpiece.

In addition to professional organizations shaping K-12 education through politics and pedagogy, pro-Hamas groups within local unions continue to actively organize teachers at the grassroots levels. In major cities like Chicago and New York, anti-Israel and anti-American teachers on the left are trying to bring their politics into the classroom, and use it as a tool to brainwash students. Due to their growing numbers and changing demographics in America, these trends continue ticking upwards,  and will need to be fought.

Alex Joffe is the Editor of SPME’s BDS Monitor and  director of Strategic Affairs for the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA). A completely different version of this article was originally published by SPME.