The department’s Office for Civil Rights said it investigated nine complaints against University of California schools in Los Angeles (UCLA), Santa Barbara, San Diego, Davis and Santa Cruz. The complaints alleged the schools failed to respond effectively to antisemitic and anti-Arab harassment.

The civil rights office concluded the universities “appear not to have responded promptly or effectively” to allegations of discrimination and harassment that were brought to the administrations’ attention.

Under the agreement, the schools must step up reporting of complaints to the OCR office and review all complaints and reports of harassment from the past two academic years to determine if further action is needed. The agreement also calls for more training of university employees and campus police officers about their obligations under federal law.

The University of California system said the agreement is one of several steps it is taking to ensure its campuses are respectful and welcoming to all.

“Ensuring an inclusive University environment requires sustained focus and action,” the system said in a written statement.

Colleges and universities nationwide saw tension and at times violence erupt on campuses after the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, with dueling campus rallies and widespread allegations of antisemitism and anti-Arab harassment.

The Department of Education has been investigating dozens of complaints that campuses violated Title VI, which bars discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color and national origin at colleges and universities that receive federal funding. Examples of harassment can include slurs, taunts, stereotypes, name-calling and racially motivated attacks or hateful conduct, according to the department’s website.

The department reached a similar agreement with Brown University in July.

A separate investigation found the University of Cincinnati did not respond appropriately to reports of harassment, the Office of Civil Rights said. Examples from some two dozen complaints include a Palestinian student who reported receiving death threats, which the university did not investigate, and an anonymous complaint that a Jewish student’s home was egged and smeared with feces.

The University of Cincinnati said in a statement it will review its policies and previously filed complaints, and take steps “to practively enhance ongoing efforts to prevent discrimination and harassment.” The university said it investigated the complaint of vandalism at the Jewish student’s home, which was made directly to the federal office, but found no reports or evidence of the incident.

UCLA’s handling of dispersing its encampment in the spring drew widespread criticism. Chaos erupted after hundreds of protesters defied orders from campus police to leave the encampment. One night, counter-protesters attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones and firing pepper spray, with fighting that continued for hours before police stepped in.

The investigation into UCLA stemmed partly from concerns of compliance related to about 150 reports the school received about rallies in October and November 2023 as well as a pro-Palestinian encampment in the spring, the department said.

“Of particular concern were reports of violence against students of Jewish ancestry … and of a violent assault by counter-protesters on pro-Palestinian protesters” at the encampment, the department said.

At rallies, protesters chanted “death to Israel” and “no peace until they’re dead,” the department said. At the encampment, protesters maintained checkpoints that excluded Jewish students from the protest area and parts of the campus, prompting the school’s chancellor to issue a statement saying Jewish students on campus, among others, felt “a state of anxiety and fear.”

Muslim and Palestinian students experienced “unwanted filming, doxing, and being followed” on or near the UCLA campus, the department said. A task force report cited by the department said counter-protesters heckled people inside the encampment, saying things like, “you’re a jihadist,” and “you’re a terrorist.”

The four other UC campuses also had “widely reported incidents” of alleged harassment against students, the civil rights office said. UC Santa Barbara was notified of antisemitic vandalism at a dorm and signs posted at a student center that targeted Jewish students by name; UC San Diego and UC Davis also received complaints about students experiencing or witnessing antisemitic comments or actions by students and professors.

Source: The Associated Press

The panel featured members of the Muslim, Arab and Palestinian (MAP) Communities Committee, including co-chair Alexander Key, a comparative literature professor, and committee member Natalie Jabbar ’09 M.A. ’10, the Public Humanities Initiative associate director. Members of the Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias (ASAIB) were also on the panel, which included co-chairs Larry Diamond ’74 M.A. ’78 Ph.D. ’80 and Jeffrey Koseff M.S. ’78 Ph.D. ’83. Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and Koseff is a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment.

The panelists addressed student questions on free speech and open dialogue at the event hosted by the Stanford Political Union and moderated by YuQing Jiang ’25, a Stanford Daily opinions editor.

Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and a reported rise of hate crimes against Jewish, Muslim and Arab students, former University President Richard Saller commissioned the two committees in November 2023 to evaluate antisemitic and anti-Palestinian discrimination in the Stanford community.

Last spring, each committee — composed of faculty, staff, students and alumni — released a 148-page report detailing dozens of instances of restricted speech, harassment and intimidation on campus.

Both committees conducted listening sessions, drafted reports and crafted recommendations for confronting bias and fostering community at Stanford. But “everyone was afraid to have their name attached to their sentiments,” Jabbar said, which made their work “very difficult.”

Diamond said he gained insight into the sentiments shared by members of Stanford’s Jewish and Israeli community during the ASAIB subcommittee’s listening sessions.

“The hardest [part] was having Jewish students tell me what they have been experiencing,” he said.

He recounted “one surprising and very tearful incident” in which a student told him: “‘I haven’t had any trouble. You know, no one’s said anything antisemitic about me’ — and then the tears start forming — ‘but most of my friends don’t know I’m Jewish.’”

Koseff said that Stanford’s Jewish students felt as though they were being held responsible for the actions of the Israeli state, leading to “feelings of alienation.”

Key described the University’s tendency to “assume the position of a neutral container” in light of campus protests in support of Israel and Palestine, as “detrimental to both the community of the University and its scholarly work.” Key added that in order to be welcome in the neutral container, students are forced to “leave their whole selves at the door.”

Diamond emphasized the importance of creating a campus culture of “mutual respect, mutual tolerance, mutual engagement and mutual listening.” The University must continue its work to ensure student safety, Diamond said, citing instances of physical harassment on Stanford’s campus and across the country.

In September, the University published updated policies on the expression of free speech and processes to report discrimination and harassment. The guidelines replaced Protected Identity Harm (PIH) reporting, instead implementing a new means for reporting physical harassment under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The panelists criticized a New York Times article that stated the two “dueling reports” illustrate the “rift between Jewish and Muslim groups on campus.”

“It’s not Jews versus Muslims. We say it over and over again, ‘We’re not fighting Jeff and Larry,’” Key said. “The framing just keeps coming back to this binary balance. It instrumentalizes and objectifies. It doesn’t listen [to members of these communities].”

The panelists said both committees plan to present their respective findings with the Faculty Senate. They also plan to discuss the University’s role in facilitating future discussions between Stanford’s Jewish and Muslim, Arab and Palestinian communities on campus.

“Our dream for the report is that we will be able to build a university [culture] where students don’t have to go out and camp on White Plaza to talk about issues [the University] won’t,” Key said.

Diamond underscored the importance of using the University’s academic platform to advance rational debate on all relevant issues, beyond the Israel-Gaza conflict.

“There shouldn’t be an exception to what we can debate and talk about in terms of domestic policy, international affairs, philosophy and basic values,” Diamond said. “Students will find a variety of means to ensure that their voices are heard, that issues are raised, and hopefully that we listen to one another and push the boundaries of our understanding and our arguments with discourse that is both vibrant and mutually respectful.”

Source: The Stanford Daily