Ed Department: Universities Failed to Protect Students Against Antisemitic Attacks

Haley Strack writes for National Review Online about a new report from the U.S. Department of Education.

The University of Michigan and the City University of New York (CUNY) failed to properly assess whether anti-Israel campus protests made for hostile environments for students, faculty, and staff, the Department of Education said on Monday.

“OCR 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,” the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which investigated 75 complaints against the University of Michigan and nine against CUNY, said.

The investigation’s results come after OCR has fielded dozens of Title VI complaints against universities that have failed to subdue campus protests that verged into rule breaking and, in some cases, outright criminality. Following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, college students have protested on and occupied school campuses, shouting antisemitic slurs and harassing Jewish students.

Title VI complaints against the schools revolve around antisemitism and Islamophobia. In one instance in October, a campus protester shouted “Nazi liberation,” and the University of Michigan took no steps to remedy the situation other than forwarding reports of the incident to its public affairs office, the DOE found.

The University of Michigan said that it would administer a climate assessment and further training for staff, and it agreed to additional OCR monitoring through 2026. CUNY also promised to provide staff with a climate assessment and training on nondiscrimination policies. Both schools agreed to reopen some past discrimination cases.

“Hate has no place on our college campuses—ever. Sadly, we have witnessed a series of deeply concerning incidents in recent months,” Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.