The Education Department has determined that neither the University of Michigan nor the City University of New York properly responded or investigated certain reports of antisemitic and anti-Arab discrimination on their campuses after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Monday's "resolutions" are the first ones issued by the agency's Office for Civil Rights in connection to incidents that occurred after the sweeping attacks by Hamas. But the Education Department avoided weighing in on specific protest rhetoric, including chants of “from the river to the sea” and “intifada,” that have been deemed antisemitic by Jewish groups and played a major role in congressional hearings about campus antisemitism.
“Hate has no place on our college campuses — ever. Sadly, we have witnessed a series of deeply concerning incidents in recent months,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “There’s no question that this is a challenging moment for school communities across the country. The recent commitments made by the University of Michigan and CUNY mark a positive step forward.”
Key context: The Education Department has opened dozens of civil rights investigations into schools since the Oct. 7 attacks spurred a wave of campus activism. Both Muslim and Jewish students have expressed fear of harassment on campus, and some schools have had incidents of physical violence. The department opened its first investigations into schools in November.
The department expressed concern that the policies at the institutions are unclear, especially with how the universities will respond to reports of discrimination. Several schools also did not adequately investigate incidents of harassment.
The resolutions, which institutions must agree to or risk losing their federal funding, are used to ensure schools comply with Title VI, a federal law that bars discrimination based on "shared ancestry," ethnic characteristics or national origin. They also outline how other schools must respond to similar incidents.
University of Michigan: OCR reviewed 75 reports of shared ancestry harassment and discrimination from the 2022-23 school year and through February 2024. The office said it “found no evidence” that the university complied with its Title VI requirements. The institution did not assess whether incidents were creating a hostile environment on campus and it did not take steps to end it or prevent it.
An example the department gave was a chant from protesters used in October: “Nazi liberation.”
OCR said the university’s records did not identify any steps it took to assess the incident or respond to it other than forwarding the report to the public affairs office. The school also did not take action when a Jewish student reported being targeted and harassed on social media.
The Jewish student had viewed a graduate student instructor’s Instagram story that discussed pro-Palestinian topics, which led the instructor to screenshot that the student had viewed the story. The instructor then posted a new story on the social media platform and tagged the student in the post, saying, “Did you like my educational talk.”
The university told the Jewish student that “formal conflict resolution is not a path forward at this time,” according to OCR, because social media “is largely going to be protected as free speech.”
Additionally, a student reported to the university in November that someone accused her of having “terrorist” friends because of her participation in a pro-Palestinian protest. The university facilitated discussions called “restorative circles” to address the incident, but took no further action.
The university has committed to review its case files for each report of discrimination covered by Title VI during the 2023-2024 school year. It will also report to OCR on its responses to reports of discrimination for the next two school years.
The university also agreed to administer a campus climate assessment and to revise its university policies and procedures on how to address Title VI complaints, among other resolutions.
City University of New York: OCR’s investigation into CUNY included nine complaints against five of its campuses and its central office, including discrimination concerns from academic year 2019-2020 and on.
The schools included: Hunter College, CUNY School of Law, Brooklyn College, Queens College and Baruch College.
OCR investigated whether the university system, Hunter College, Brooklyn College, the School of Law and Baruch failed to respond promptly and effectively to alleged discrimination and antisemitic harassment since 2019-2020. OCR also investigated whether the university system, Hunter College, the School of Law and Queens have discriminated against students perceived to be of Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and/or South Asian ancestry since October 2023.
At Hunter College, OCR found that Jewish students were told not to speak as some students and faculty disrupted two sessions of a required college course by using class time to call for the decolonization of Palestine. “Several students expressed that the disruption made them fearful and at least one student left class early,” the department said. The school said the class disruption did not deny the students access to education at the institution, but did not interview students in the class. Hunter College also didn’t communicate with students the results of its investigation.
CUNY committed to resolve all nine complaints to ensure all 25 CUNY campuses protect students against shared ancestry discrimination.
The university system will reopen or initiate investigations of Title VI complaints and provide OCR with the results and actions taken by the institution. It must also provide training to employees on how to investigate incidents and training for campus peace officers. CUNY must also ensure that its colleges administer a climate survey by Sept. 30 and continue third-party reviews being conducted at the request of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
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