The Trump Administration Is Wielding Accreditation as Political Weapon Against Columbia University

Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

President Donald Trump is trying to contort the college accreditation system into a political weapon, and is strong-arming Columbia University's accreditor into punishing it, all part of his broader campaign to reshape higher education along ideological lines.

Accreditors determine whether colleges meet standards of quality. Those that pass muster gain access to federal student aid like Pell Grants and loans, which most colleges need to remain solvent.

These accreditors are cleaved from government by design. While the Education Department determines which accreditors can unlock access to federal aid, the organizations themselves develop and enforce their own standards as a safeguard against political agendas and government control over curricula.

Columbia is among several highly visible institutions from which the Trump administration has cut off some federal funds, arguing they had allowed antisemitism to fester on campus following protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

Of course, colleges must follow federal law and protect their campus populations, including Jewish students. But the Trump administration's response to antisemitism diverges into blatant government overreach. It stripped Columbia of $400 million in grant funding, then tied its restoration to a sweeping list of commands including that the university ramp up campus policing and impose new oversight on the Center for Palestine Studies.

Columbia agreed to the demands, but capitulation earned it nothing. The Trump administration initially called its response a "promising first step," but quickly ramped up pressure. In May, two federal civil rights offices formally declared the Ivy League institution had violated federal antidiscrimination law by neglecting harassment of Jewish students.

Now, the administration is abusing the college accreditation system - what Trump has called his "secret weapon" in his campaign to push American higher education to the right - and using it to go after Columbia.

The Education Department is trying to coerce the university's accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education into further punishing it. On Wednesday, the Education Department announced it had informed Middle States that Columbia had violated accreditation standards. The department said in light of the civil right divisions' findings from last month, Columbia appeared to no longer meet Middle States Commission's requirements that institutions comply "with all applicable government laws and regulations."

The aim is clear: To ensure Columbia submits to the Trump administration's demands, it is leveraging accreditation to threaten the institution's eligibility for federal student aid.

Yet accreditation isn't easily weaponized. The system is deliberately slow and largely insulated from federal control.

For starters, the Middle States Commission - not the federal government - has the authority to decide whether Columbia has failed to meet accreditation benchmarks. Federal law expressly forbids the Education Department from exercising "direction, supervision, or control" over accreditor activities.

Only the Middle States Commission can choose to investigate whether Columbia is in compliance with its standards. That's often an intensive process, and could involve visiting the campus and requesting the university submit deep documentation about alleged violations. Already, Middle States seems to have started some of that work. Its staff visited the campus recently and requested information about Columbia's operations, according to public records.

Depending on how an investigation into Columbia plays out, Middle States could issue the university a sanction that could range from a warning to putting its accreditation on probation - it could also not act at all.

Even if Middle States eventually found Columbia in violation, any accreditation loss would take years - not months - to unfold. Ultimately, it's highly unlikely Columbia would lose accreditation.

These prolonged procedures, however, ensure an institution receives due process and that if an accreditor did discover wrongdoing, that's grounded in documented violations - and not the result of political meddling, as the Trump administration is attempting now.

The intrusion into accreditation marks an escalation for Trump officials in their war against American higher education. The administration knows it hasn't entirely broken Columbia, and that colleges mostly have resisted kowtowing to Trump's impulses. Harvard sued the administration when it yanked its grant funding and tried to block its ability to enroll international students. Hundreds of higher education leaders and presidents nationwide signed onto a statement protesting "unprecedented government overreach and political interference."

The administration's actions threaten not just Columbia, but also Middle States, and the credibility of the entire accreditation system. The Trump administration has made clear it wants to push out existing accreditors and replace them with ones that will tow the political line. In its announcement Wednesday, the Education Department demanded to be kept apprised of Columbia's compliance with accreditation standards, signaling it intends to continue overstepping in accreditation processes.

Though here too, "firing" accreditors, as Trump hinted at on the campaign trail, is not an easy feat. While the Education Department can't dictate accreditors decisions, it does control which ones are allowed to sign off on colleges' access to federal aid. But stripping that recognition would take time-likely years-and involve multiple layers of review.

Education Department staff, typically after a lengthy review, would need to recommend that the agency no longer recognize an accreditor, and a separate body, the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, or NACIQI, would weigh in before a senior department official makes the final call. But the threat alone can be enough to sway an accreditor, especially when the Education Department is essentially broadcasting what outcome it wants, in this case, Columbia losing accreditation.

It sets a dangerous precedent of using independent bodies to undermine institutional autonomy

The Trump administration should immediately cease its efforts to sway Columbia's accreditor. Accreditors are independent bodies, ensuring that colleges are judged by consistent, independent standards, not the inclinations of whoever holds power. Undermining that system affects the integrity of higher education nationwide. Advocates, institutional leaders, and the public must remain vigilant. Attempts to politicize accreditation threaten a core tenet of democracy: that facts, not ideology, determine legitimacy.