By Emma Tucker, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration has escalated its fight with Columbia University, declaring the school doesn’t meet accreditation standards because of its failure to protect Jewish students.

“After Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, Columbia University’s leadership acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students on its campus,” US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement Wednesday.

The US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said on Wednesday it notified the Middle States Commission on Higher Education – a nongovernmental association that conducts accreditation activities for higher education institutions – about Columbia University’s alleged violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, according to a news release from the Education Department.

The federal agency said the university “no longer appears to meet” the commission’s accreditation standards.

Losing accreditation could hurt Columbia because it’s required for university students to gain access to federal money, including student grants and loans. It remains unclear how the commission will respond to the Education Department’s notification.

Columbia University said in a statement it’s “aware of the concerns raised” by the agency to the commission, adding, “we have addressed those concerns directly with Middle States.”

“Columbia is deeply committed to combatting antisemitism on our campus. We take this issue seriously and are continuing to work with the federal government to address it,” reads the statement on the university’s website.

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education told CNN it received a letter on the matter Wednesday but said it does “not have any other comment at this time.”

“We look forward to the Commission keeping the Department fully informed of actions taken to ensure Columbia’s compliance with accreditation standards including compliance with federal civil rights laws,” McMahon said.

Elite universities across the US – including Columbia – have been under intense pressure from the administration to comply with demands for school policy changes or risk losing federal funding after they were accused of tolerating antisemitism on campus.

In a separate move on Wednesday, President Trump signed a proclamation to block the entry of nearly all new Harvard University student as nonimmigrants into the United States under visas most international students use to study at universities or participate in academic exchange programs in the country.

Columbia last month was accused of violating federal civil rights law by acting with “deliberate indifference” towards harassment of Jewish students on campus since October 7, 2023, coinciding with a terror attack on Israel by Hamas and its allies and the start of Israel’s brutal war in Gaza.

A Columbia spokesperson at the time cast the findings as another step in the university’s work with the government to determine the best ways to fight antisemitism on campus.

The findings were part of a series of actions by the federal government’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, which was created following a February executive order from President Donald Trump.

Trump took aim at the college accreditation process with a new executive order in April, asking the secretary of education to “hold higher education accreditors accountable including through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination for poor performance or violations to the federal Civil Rights Act,” a White House official told CNN ahead of the signing.

The Department of Education said Wednesday it has “an obligation to provide accreditors with any noncompliance findings related to member institutions” in accordance with Trump’s executive order.

When an institution does not meet accreditation standards, it may be placed on probation or issued a warning, according to the Middle States Commission. If an institution does not “remedy the areas of non-compliance,” the commission can take an “adverse action” to deny or withdraw candidate status or accreditation, which is subject to appeal, the policy says.

If an appeal is filed, the institution will maintain its accreditation status until the appeal is “exhausted,” according to the commission’s policy.

Columbia has said it’s been working to address antisemitism concerns and announced a series of sweeping policy changes in March after the Trump administration said it was canceling $400 million worth of federal grants and contracts to the university over its alleged failure to quash antisemitism on campus.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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