Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has opened the claims process for current and former Columbia University employees who believe they experienced harassment due to their Jewish faith or ancestry, Israeli national origin, or due to objecting to or complaining about such harassment, EEOC announced Thursday.
- EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas reiterated the Trump administration’s commitment to fighting antisemitism, commended Columbia for providing a “robust” claims fund and encouraged employees who may have been affected to file a claim.
- The July settlement was “the largest EEOC public settlement in nearly 20 years for any form of discrimination or harassment” and “the largest EEOC settlement for victims of anti-semitism to date, as well as the most significant EEOC settlement for workers of any faith or religion,” the agency previously said.
Dive Insight:
EEOC created a website, eeoccolumbiasettlement.com, for those seeking to file claims. The settlement class includes those employed by Columbia between Oct. 7, 2023, and July 23, 2025, who believe they experienced antisemitic discrimination, harassment or retaliation during that period. EEOC will have sole discretion in determining eligibility and the amount awarded to successful claimants.
Claimants have until June 2, 2026, to submit a claim.
The settlement marked a major win for the Trump administration’s EEOC, which in March vowed to “hold accountable universities” for hostile-work conditions it said arose for Jewish workers in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Lucas in June 2024 filed the Commissioner’s Charge that led to the agency’s investigation of antisemitism, EEOC noted in a press release. In April, various outlets reported that faculty members at Columbia and the affiliated Barnard College had begun receiving text messages from the agency asking whether they were Jewish or Israeli.
Columbia voluntarily resolved the charges “as part of a broader agreement with the Trump administration” and in order to avoid an extended dispute, EEOC said in July. The university did not admit liability.
The Trump administration has put extensive pressure on universities to change policies and make deals or risk losing millions in federal funding, according to reporting by Higher Ed Dive. Columbia’s $21 million settlement with EEOC was part of a broader deal that also included a $200 million, three-year payout to the federal government, as well as the provision of applicant demographic data, closer evaluation of foreign students and other requirements. In exchange, the Trump administration restored $400 million in canceled federal grants.
Brown University, Cornell University, Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania and University of Virginia have likewise entered into deals with the administration. Many have included dropping certain DEI practices; changing criteria for sports, housing and other sex-segregated spaces to align with President Donald Trump’s executive order on sex and gender; and conducting climate surveys to evaluate the experience of Jewish people on campus.
While only the Columbia deal so far has involved EEOC, the agency has continued to investigate other institutions. In November, EEOC asked a Pennsylvania district court to force UPenn to comply with a subpoena requesting information in an ongoing investigation into bias against Jewish employees. A response to that request is still pending.
