The US Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office (CRO) reached a resolution agreement with the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign on Wednesday to ensure adherence with the Civil Rights Act following concerns of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate.
Under the resolution, the university agreed to 7 specific steps to ensure compliance.
- Review and revise, if needed, its nondiscrimination policies to ensure they can accurately assess whether a hostile environment is created on campus, and to acknowledge off campus/online conduct can also contribute to a hostile environment in the university.
- Ensure that the protest and demonstration policy to ensure law enforcement responses occur in compliance with the Civil Rights Act, Title VI.
- Provide training to university law enforcement, and any staff investigating allegations of discrimination, on ethnicity or ancestry-based hate
- Conduct training on discrimination based on national origin or ancestry to all university faculty, staff and students
- Review the university’s response to formal and informal complaints of antisemitism, and other discrimination reports, during the 2023-2024 academic year
- Provide the OCR with information regarding any complaints of discrimination or harassment from shared ancestry during the 2024-2025 school year
- Administer a climate survey to students and staff and create an OCR-approved action plan
The complaint to the OCR was initiated after multiple complaints of anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian discrimination and the alleged creation of a hostile environment towards Jewish students on campus, including the presence of swastikas, anti-Semitic conspiracies, stolen religious symbols and theft and vandalism targeted at Jewish fraternities. There were also many complaints about the creation of a hostile environment through seminars and online posts concerning the Israel-Palestine conflict. In total, there were 139 complaints reviewed by the OCR, including 135 anti-Semitism and 4 anti-Muslim or anti-Palestinian discrimination-related complaints. In investigating the complaints, the OCR found that the university had poor follow-up, and unclear procedures for delegating investigative and punitive powers to its various offices responsible for overseeing anti-discrimination matters.
Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act prohibits any discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. Individuals who believe they may have been discriminated against may file a Title VI complaint with the relevant agency providing federal funding, in his instance, the US Department of Education.
This is the latest in a series of resolutions between the Department of Education and individual US universities alleged to have made insufficient responses to rising anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim discrimination. Brown University reached a similar resolution in July, and NYU reached an agreement with Jewish student organizations to settle a Title VI lawsuit in the same month. Rising anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate concerns have become widespread as the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has intensified. US universities have been a source of heated political confrontation and protest throughout 2023 and 2024.
