UPDATE – JUNE 25, 2024:
Several days after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) determined the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Michigan violated Title VI by failing to properly investigate allegations of antisemitic, anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab harassment, OCR announced Lafayette College entered into a resolution agreement to “ensure its compliance with Title VI of the of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI) when responding to allegations of discrimination or harassment based on shared ancestry, including based on shared Jewish ancestry.”
OCR investigated the Pennsylvania college’s response to an Oct. 25, 2023 protest on campus and its response to notices of antisemitic and anti-Arab discrimination it received in fall 2023 and more recent events.
As part of the resolution, Lafayette College agrees to:
- Review its response to previous reports of discrimination and/or harassment based on shared ancestry for the 2023-2024 academic year to ensure the college made a determination regarding whether the alleged conduct created a hostile environment, including incidents that occurred on social media or off campus.
- Provide OCR with documentation of the college’s response to all complaints alleging discrimination, including harassment, on the basis of shared ancestry, for the next two school years.
- Review and revise its policies and procedures to include a description of the forms of discrimination that can occur in the college environment and to ensure that the college’s response to notice of discrimination, including national origin harassment on the basis of shared ancestry, is consistent with Title VI.
- Provide training to all employees and staff responsible for investigating complaints and other reports of discrimination, including harassment, based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics (which includes antisemitism), as well as all staff involved in responding to reports of race, color, and national origin discrimination, regarding the college’s obligations under Title VI, as well as the college’s non-discrimination policies and procedures.
- Provide training to all staff and students regarding conduct prohibited by Title VI, the college’s responsibility to respond to allegations of discrimination, including harassment, based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics (which includes antisemitism), and the college’s antiharassment policies and procedures.
“Lafayette College has committed to take the steps necessary to ensure its students are not subjected to antisemitic or anti-Arab hostile environments and have the equal access to education the law guarantees to them,” said Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon. “The college’s commitments today build on many laudable practices the college already had in place to support its campus community against discrimination, importantly bringing its responses in line with applicable Title VI legal requirements.”
ORIGINAL ARTICLE – JUNE 18, 2024:
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has determined that the City University of New York (CUNY) and University of Michigan violated Title VI by failing to properly investigate allegations of antisemitic, anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab harassment, as well as allegations of harassment based on national origin. Resolution agreements of both cases were announced on Monday.
Dozens of similar Title VI investigations of other institutions of higher education around the country are being conducted by OCR since Hamas’ surprise attack of Israel on October 7. The University of Michigan and CUNY cases are the first to conclude.
Seventy-five reports of alleged shared ancestry harassment and/or discrimination at the University of Michigan from the 2022-23 school year through February 2024 were reviewed by OCR. The agency found “no evidence that the university complied with its Title VI requirements to assess whether incidents individually or cumulatively created a hostile environment for students, faculty, or staff, and if so, to take steps reasonably calculated to end the hostile environment, remedy its effects, and prevent its recurrence.”
For example, the school didn’t assess if there was a hostile environment and take remedial action when a Jewish student reported having been targeted and harassed on social media.
“This student reported that after he viewed a graduate student instructor’s Instagram story that included a discussion of pro-Palestinian topics, the instructor screenshotted that the student had viewed the story and posted a new story, tagging the student in the post and showing that he had an Israeli flag in his bio, with a comment saying, ‘Did you like my educational talk,’” according to the investigation.
The University of Michigan’s only response was that “formal conflict resolution is not a path forward at this time” because social media “is largely going to be protected as free speech” and told the student about informal resolution pathways.
In another case, the school only held “restorative circles” to address when a different student who participated in a pro-Palestine protest was accused of having “terrorist” friends.
Related Article: OCR Issues Dear Colleague Letter on Ethnic Discrimination in Schools
In CUNY’s case, OCR investigated whether the university and/or Hunter College, Brooklyn College, the School of Law, and Baruch were on notice of and failed to respond promptly or effectively to alleged discrimination and antisemitic harassment by employees and students at the colleges and schools, creating a hostile environment for students of Jewish ancestry since academic year 2019-2020.
Additionally, OCR investigated whether CUNY and/or Hunter College, the School of Law, and Queens have discriminated against students on the basis of their actual or perceived national origin/ancestry, including shared Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and/or South Asian ancestry and their association with these national origins/ancestries since October 2023.
University of Michigan’s Corrective Actions to Comply with Title VI:
To resolve OCR’s concerns, the University of Michigan has agreed to:
- Review case files for each report of discrimination and/or harassment on the basis of shared ancestry during the 2023-2024 school year to determine whether the alleged conduct created a hostile environment and whether any further action is needed to provide an equitable resolution of each incident.
- Report to OCR on its responses to reports of discrimination, including harassment on the basis of shared ancestry, during the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years.
- Revise as necessary university policies and procedures to ensure that they adequately address the Title VI prohibition on discrimination based on race, color, and national origin, including discrimination based on a student’s actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.
- Ensure the university coordinates compliance with Title VI through its Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX office.
- Train employees, including university law enforcement, regarding the university’s obligations under Title VI to respond to alleged discrimination, and university policies and procedures. And,
- Administer a climate assessment for students and employees to evaluate the extent to which students and/or employees are subjected to or witness discrimination and harassment based on race, color, and national origin, including discrimination based on actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, as well as knowledge of university procedures for reporting such discrimination. The university will use the results of such assessments to identify responsive steps for OCR’s review and approval.
Links to the University of Michigan’s resolution letter and resolution agreement
CUNY’s Corrective Actions to Comply with Title VI:
To resolve OCR’s concerns, CUNY has agreed to:
- Reopen or initiate investigations of complaints and reports alleging discrimination, including harassment, on the basis of national origin, including shared Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, and/or South Asian ancestry, or association with these national origins/shared ancestries.
- For each investigation, provide OCR with the results of the investigation, and for each finding of a hostile environment created by harassment based on national origin/shared ancestry, report to OCR any remedial action to be taken by CUNY, including actions to remedy the effects of the environment and prevent recurrence.
- Provide training to employees responsible for investigating complaints and other reports of discrimination, including harassment, based on national origin/shared ancestry or association with the national origin/shared ancestry, to ensure thorough and impartial investigations, including that the investigators know how to identify relevant witnesses to interview and how to conduct interviews about such harassment and whether it created a hostile educational environment.
- Provide training for campus peace officers on CUNY’s Title VI obligations not to discriminate based on national origin, including shared ancestry, how to engage effectively with CUNY students and the campus community, and how to ensure accurate collection and reporting of complaints and other information regarding interactions between public safety officers and students, as required by Title VI.
- Ensure that each of CUNY’s 25 constituent colleges and schools administers at least one climate survey to students no later than September 30, 2024. And,
- Continue the third-party reviews currently being conducted of CUNY’s nondiscrimination and antisemitism policies, at the direction and request of New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, and the other by an advocacy group.
