To the shock of no one, an internal review by the Biden Department of Education showed that multiple colleges allowed pro-Hamas antics and antisemitism to run amok. The press release is a bit funny since they tried to make it seem like Jewish and Palestinian students were being harassed equally. Again, it’s the ‘don’t believe your lying eyes’ tactic. We know who was getting the brunt of the abuse from student bodies that were virulently anti-Jewish, violent, pro-terrorist, and all-around unspooled (via Axios):
The Department of Education announced Monday that the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Michigan fell short in addressing campus reports of discrimination.
The big picture: The two universities are the first to reach resolutions among a growing list of colleges and K-12 school districts investigated by the Department of Education over alleged incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Amid an uptick in such threats on college campuses since the Israel-Hamas war began, the department has reiterated schools' responsibility to comply with a federal civil rights law that addresses discrimination.
The Education Department has opened more than 100 investigations into institutions for alleged discrimination involving shared ancestry since the war began.
Concerning CUNY, a resolution concerning several complaints was announced as well. Some of these incidents date back to 2019:
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today announced the resolution of all nine pending complaints against the City University of New York (CUNY), the CUNY Central Office (Central Office), and the following CUNY colleges and schools: Hunter College (Hunter), CUNY School of Law (the Law School), Brooklyn College (Brooklyn), Queens College (Queens), and Baruch College (Baruch). This resolution addresses discrimination concerns in CUNY schools from academic year 2019-2020 forward.
[…]
Because OCR identified concerns regarding systemwide fulfillment of CUNY’s federal nondiscrimination obligations, CUNY committed to resolve all nine complaints to ensure every one of the 25 CUNY campuses protects all students against shared ancestry discrimination that violates Title VI without further delay.
The complaints this agreement resolves include:
- Hunter: Two cases, one alleging harassment of students based on national origin (shared Jewish ancestry) in academic year 2020-2021; and the other alleging harassment and disparate treatment of students based on actual or perceived national origin/ethnicity (including shared Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and/or South Asian ancestry and association with these national origins/shared ancestries) since October 2023.
- Brooklyn: One case alleging harassment of students on the basis of national origin (shared Jewish ancestry) and actual or perceived race/color in fall 2020.
- The Law School: Three cases, two alleging harassment of students based on national origin (shared Jewish ancestry) during academic years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021; and another alleging harassment and disparate treatment of students based on actual or perceived national origin/ethnicity (including shared Palestinian, Arab, and/or Muslim ancestry and association with these national origins/shared ancestries) since October 2023.
- Queens: One case, alleging harassment and disparate treatment of students based on actual or perceived national origin/ethnicity (including shared Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and/or South Asian ancestry and association with these national origins/shared ancestries) since October 2023.
- Baruch: One case, alleging, among other things, harassment of students based on their national origin (shared Jewish ancestry) during spring 2022.
- Central Office: One case, alleging harassment of students on the basis of national origin (shared Jewish ancestry) across the university’s constituent colleges and schools since academic year 2020-2021.
[…]
OCR’s investigation also confirmed that Hunter concluded – without interviewing any students who were present during the Zoom sessions – that the class disruption did not deny access to education at Hunter. OCR determined that Hunter could not have adequately evaluated what occurred in the sessions and whether it created a hostile environment for Jewish students without interviewing affected students.
OCR’s investigation also yielded no evidence that Hunter took any action to communicate to affected students the results of its investigation or that it took actions to redress any hostile environment students may have experienced.
[…]
In the resolution agreement, CUNY has committed to:
- Reopen or initiate investigations of complaints and reports alleging discrimination, including harassment, on the basis of national origin, including shared Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, and/or South Asian ancestry, or association with these national origins/shared ancestries.
- For each investigation, provide OCR with the results of the investigation, and for each finding of a hostile environment created by harassment based on national origin/shared ancestry, report to OCR any remedial action to be taken by CUNY, including actions to remedy the effects of the environment and prevent recurrence.
- Provide training to employees responsible for investigating complaints and other reports of discrimination, including harassment, based on national origin/shared ancestry or association with the national origin/shared ancestry, to ensure thorough and impartial investigations, including that the investigators know how to identify relevant witnesses to interview and how to conduct interviews about such harassment and whether it created a hostile educational environment.
- Provide training for campus peace officers on CUNY’s Title VI obligations not to discriminate based on national origin, including shared ancestry, how to engage effectively with CUNY students and the campus community, and how to ensure accurate collection and reporting of complaints and other information regarding interactions between public safety officers and students, as required by Title VI.
- Ensure that each of CUNY’s 25 constituent colleges and schools administers at least one climate survey to students no later than September 30, 2024. And,
- Continue the third-party reviews currently being conducted of CUNY’s nondiscrimination and antisemitism policies, at the direction and request of New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, and the other by an advocacy group.
It was already bad enough that colleges were hubs for illiberal tendencies, like safe spaces, speech zones, and non-whites-only housing. Now, we have to worry about whether these institutions are factories for the next generation of radical Islamic terrorists.
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