The University of Michigan and the City University of New York improperly handled complaints of discrimination on their campuses during widespread protests against the Gaza war, the Department of Education said Monday.
The department's civil rights office opened dozens of investigations into anti-Semitism and anti-Arab discrimination after students held rallies and encampments in support of Palestinians and demanded that schools withdraw from Israel.
The Michigan and New York cases are just the first to reach conclusions, with many more expected to be concluded in the coming weeks and months as schools continue to consider the limits of free speech in academic environments.
Under the terms of the agreement announced Monday, the university must step up reporting of complaints to the Office of Civil Rights and review training for employees, including campus police officers, about their obligations under federal law.
“Unfortunately, in recent months, we have seen a series of very disturbing incidents,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said. “There is no doubt that this is a challenging time for school communities across the country.”
“The recent initiatives by the University of Michigan and CUNY are a positive step,” he said.
The Department for Education said that in some cases the protests had developed into a “hostile environment” for certain students and that schools had failed to deal with it.
At the University of Michigan, students complained they were yelled at to be silenced at a pro-Palestinian rally in November and accused of “supporting rape and murder” alongside “terrorist allies,” but the department said the university did little to address the complaint.
The agreement with CUNY addressed nine complaints dating back to 2019 across the university system, including Hunter College, Baruch College, Queens College and the City University of New York School of Law.
The department detailed instances in 2021 in which Hunter College students and faculty disrupted online classes by “hijacking scheduled class discussions to use class time to advocate for the decolonization of Palestine.” In its letter to CUNY, the department cited multiple complaints since Oct. 7 in which Palestinian students reported bullying and unequal treatment, including the selective cancellation of pro-Palestinian events and the removal of pro-Palestinian flyers.
The department's investigation falls under Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on students' common ancestry or ethnic characteristics.
The department does not typically comment on ongoing investigations but acknowledged that many of its recent investigations have stemmed from complaints of anti-Semitic and anti-Arab harassment in schools across the country.
Criticism of the way schools try to balance the goal of protecting free speech with the safety and well-being of students has led to high-profile clashes between school leaders and legislatures, the resignations of several college presidents and internal disputes among faculty at many schools.
In both lawsuits, concluded Monday, the Department of Education required schools to conduct “climate assessment” surveys by December 2025 to “assess the extent to which students and staff have experienced or witnessed discrimination or harassment based on race, color, or national origin” so that progress can be measured.
