The US Department of Education has is currently investigating dozens of prominent universities in the wake of the 10/7 attack on Israel and the campus protests that followed. Today it released findings regarding two of those schools, the City University of New York and the University of Michigan. The reports found that both schools failed to properly investigate incidents which were covered by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects students from discrimination based on shared ancestry.

In its report on the University of Michigan, the agency’s Office of Civil Rights said, “the University appears not to have taken steps to assess whether incidents about which it had notice 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.”

The federal agency reviewed 67 complaints – many of which predated the Israel-Hamas conflict – and found “the University only investigated and made findings in a single complaint.”

One complaint involved a protest on campus in October 2023 where people were chanting “Nazi liberation.” The federal report says the university’s civil rights office simply “forwarded the reports to public affairs for response.”

A complaint from January 2023 described “people participating in a parade on campus while allegedly chanting for the removal and death of the Jewish people and the state of Israel.” The Department of Education report found no evidence the university had taken any action.

Some of the incidents (at both schools) involved Muslim students, though the majority of incidents seem to have involved complaints of anti-Semitism.

At the City University of New York and its affiliated colleges, there were nine pending complaints from both Jewish and Muslim students, and the resolution agreement announced Monday covers them all.

In the earliest case, the investigation found that in 2021, students and faculty members at Hunter College commandeered a required college course in a call for what they described as the decolonization of Palestine. When Jewish students tried to speak, they were told to listen and not talk, investigators found. The federal investigation concluded that Hunter’s response to the incident was inadequate.

The copies of the letters the Department sent to both schools are not entirely helpful as a lot of the factual information has been redacted. For instance, here's a description from the letter sent to the University of Michigan.

On December [redacted content], 2023, a report was made to OSCR by [redacted content] regarding an interaction between [redacted content] made antisemitic statements towards another student who identifies as Jewish.  The report included [redacted content].  Documents show that according to the [redacted content].  [Redacted sentence]. OSCR closed the case saying that [redacted content] determined they would address the matter.

Well, that certainly clears things up. And the letter sent to CUNY isn't any better if you're trying to understand what happened there. Nearly all of the details have been redacted.

Still, what does come across is that both schools have been dropping the ball. 

Complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia have led to inquiries at more than 100 universities and school districts, including Harvard and Yale, community colleges and public schools from Los Angeles to suburban Minneapolis.

The complaints vary widely but all accuse schools of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin. Colleges and schools are required to protect students from discrimination, and when they don’t, the Education Department can invoke penalties up to termination of federal money.

We should be getting reports like this in the coming weeks involving prestige schools like Columbia, Harvard, Stanford and many more.