The Department of Education announced investigations into six more colleges and universities on Tuesday, adding to a growing list of institutions the agency is examining for complaints of campus discrimination.
The schools mentioned by the department are Stanford, the University of California-Los Angeles, the University of California-San Diego, the University of Washington-Seattle, Rutgers University in New Jersey, and Whitman College in Washington state.
The investigations into some of the West Coast’s most prominent institutions come weeks after the Department of Education opened similar investigations into a number of elite East Coast schools, including Harvard, Cornell, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania.
Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Department routinely investigates complaints against universities reporting discrimination based on common ancestry or racial characteristics.
The agency regularly considers Title VI complaints of all kinds against both smaller public school districts and large research universities, but clashes on college campuses since violence erupted in Israel and Gaza have produced a wave of new investigations since October.
As of this week, 21 of the 29 investigations the department has opened into post-secondary schools this year have come since the initial Hamas attack on October 7.
In a press release about the previous batch of investigations announced in November, the department described its efforts as part of a larger directive “to take aggressive action to address the alarming nationwide rise in reports of anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and other issues.” Discrimination and harassment on campuses and in K-12 schools since the conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
As with other recent investigations, it was not immediately clear what incident triggered the complaints to the department and prompted its action. An agency spokesman declined to provide details on the nature of any of the complaints Wednesday, citing a policy not to discuss pending investigations.
But since October 7, a number of incidents and disputes on campus have alarmed many of the schools involved.
In November, Michael V. Drake, president of the University of California, along with 10 University Network advisors, wrote a letter attacking anti-Semitic and Islamophobic rhetoric at campus protests.
“We write today to condemn the disturbing and deeply disappointing acts of intolerance, intolerance and intimidation that we have witnessed on our campuses over the past few weeks,” the letter said.
Soon after, hundreds of faculty and students across UCLA wrote a letter calling on Richard Lieb, chair of the University Network’s Board of Trustees, to resign over social media posts that the letter’s authors described as “dangerously biased.” Alienating Arab students and Palestinian activist groups.
At Stanford University, more than 2,000 alumni signed an open letter to university leaders accusing them of failing to stop “increasing expressions of hatred and persecution” against the university’s Jewish community.
Dee Mostofi, a Stanford spokeswoman, said the university intends to “work collaboratively with the Office for Civil Rights in its investigation of this complaint.”
Last week, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., sent a letter to the president of Rutgers University criticizing a campus event for “providing a platform” for “known anti-Semites.”
Rutgers also briefly suspended the Newark chapter of the Rutgers Law School Student Bar Association in November after the association moved to expel an Orthodox Jewish member. On Monday, the university suspended the University of New Brunswick campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that has been suspended at other schools including Columbia, over what student leaders described as “vague and unsubstantiated complaints” and an “attempt to mix up” speech activity. Protected by violence.
A Rutgers spokeswoman said Wednesday that the school was notified this week that the Department of Education had opened an investigation into “alleged incidents of harassment in October and November 2023 of students based on their national origin (common Jewish ancestry and/or Israel).” “.
Spokeswoman Dori Devlin said the school would “certainly cooperate fully.”
Rutgers has the second-largest Jewish population of any American public university, after the University of Florida, according to Hillel International, the world’s largest Jewish campus organization.
Gary L said. “I’ve talked to Jewish students who feel unsafe,” said Francione, Board of Governors professor at Rutgers Law School.
The issue of discrimination on college campuses is a growing concern, and the Department of Education is taking steps to address it. In recent developments, six colleges are being investigated for allegations of discrimination, raising important questions about the treatment of students and faculty members. This investigation highlights the need for continued efforts to create inclusive and welcoming environments on college campuses, and sheds light on the ongoing struggles for equality and fairness within higher education.