TheTrump administrationhas launched a review into what it describes as “recent incidents of antisemitic violence” at the University of Washington and its affiliates following a pro-Palestinian protest there on Monday that led to about 30 arrests.
On Monday, protesters associated with the student group Super UW – short for Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return –temporarily occupiedthe Interdisciplinary Engineering Building on the university’s Seattle campus.
The group’s social media posts note that the protest and occupation of the engineering building was aimed at pressuring the university tosever its ties with Boeing, which donated $10m toward the building’s construction in 2022, over the aviation company’s arms sales anddefense contractswith Israel.
“UW students want Boeing off our campus,” the group, which the university said is suspended from campus,wrote.
The group also called for the building to be renamed the Shaban al-Dalou Building in honor of a teenage engineering studentwho was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
In a statement, the universitycondemned the building occupationas “dangerous, violent and illegal” and said that the protesters “vandalized the building”, “blocked access to two streets” and “set dumpsters on fire in a nearby street”.
University spokesperson Victor Baltasaidthat about 30 people who occupied the building were arrested and that “charges of trespassing, property destruction and disorderly conduct, and conspiracy to commit all three, will be referred to the King county prosecutor’s office”.
Balta also denounced an unspecified statement issued by the group on Monday as “antisemitic”, without elaborating or providing evidence. It is also unclear on what grounds the Trump administration is alleging antisemitism.
The Guardian has reached out to the University of Washington for clarification.
“The University will not be intimidated by this sort of offensive and destructive behavior and will continue to oppose antisemitism in all its forms,” Balta added in the statement.
In posts on social media,the student group saidthat law enforcement was violent with protesters during the arrests on Monday night and that three people required hospitalization.
On Tuesday evening, the federal government’s Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration issued a jointpress releaseannouncing a review of “recent incidents of antisemitic violence” at UW and its affiliates.
In the statement, the administration praised UW’s “strong response to last night’s violence” and the “swift action by law enforcement”.
However, the administration said that UW “must do more to deter future violence and guarantee that Jewish students have a safe and productive learning environment”.
The federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism “expects the institution to follow up with enforcement actions and policy changes that are clearly necessary to prevent these uprisings moving forward”, the statement added.
The education secretary, Linda McMahon, also warned that the taskforce “will not allow these so-called ‘protesters’ to disrupt campus life and deprive students, especially Jewish students who live in fear on campus, of their equal opportunity protections and civil rights”.
The University of Washington review is part of a broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses under the Trump administration.
In recent months, the education department’s civil rights office has warned60 colleges and universitiesthat they may face “enforcement actions” over alleged failure to comply with federal civil rights laws related to antisemitism, and the administration has also threatened to cut off federal funding to schools that permit what it deems “illegal protests”.
In March, Columbia University, which has been under scrutiny by theTrump administrationover pro-Palestinian protests on its campus last year,agreed to a seriesof policy changes in order to restore $400m in federal funding that the administration revoked after citing allegations that the school failed to protect students from antisemitic harassment.
TheTrump administrationhas also frozen billions of dollars of federal funding to Harvard University after the universityrejected a list of demandsfrom the administration. Harvard has sincefiled a lawsuit against the Trump administration, accusing the government of attempting to “gain control of academic decision-making”.
This week, the Department of Educationinformed Harvard that it was ending billions of dollars in research grantsand other aid unless the school accedes to the list of demands.