WASHINGTON (courtesy of WVLT) – On Monday, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights sent letters to 60 universities it said were under investigation for anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights letter warned about possible enforcement actions against institutions that do not protect Jewish students as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act requires.
Included among the 60 schools that were sent letters is the University of Tennessee.
“The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless anti-Semitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.”
Under Title VI and President Trump’s Executive Order against Antisemitism, the department is investigating five universities for reports of anti-Semitic harassment. Additionally, 55 universities are under investigation or monitoring due to complaints to the department.
WVLT News reached out to the university for a statement, and a spokesperson said UT fully cooperated with the Office for Civil Rights after it received a complaint in 2023.
An individual student filed a Title VI complaint in 2023 based on an unrelated set of events in 2023 that they witnessed and/or heard about. The student engaged with a variety of university offices in 2023, and the offices worked to support the student. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights reached out with a request for information about the student’s concerns in 2024. The university has cooperated fully with OCR.
The university takes its responsibility to maintain an environment free of illegal discrimination very seriously. Any time we are made aware of any issue, we provide support and resources to any potentially impacted students, and also inform them about their right to file a complaint either with a campus office or OCR, as appropriate.University of Tennessee spokesperson
The following are schools that received letters from the Office for Civil Rights:
- American University
- Arizona State University
- Boston University
- Brown University
- California State University, Sacramento
- Chapman University
- Columbia University
- Cornell University
- Drexel University
- Eastern Washington University
- Emerson College
- George Mason University
- Harvard University
- Illinois Wesleyan University
- Indiana University, Bloomington
- Johns Hopkins University
- Lafayette College
- Lehigh University
- Middlebury College
- Muhlenberg College
- Northwestern University
- Ohio State University
- Pacific Lutheran University
- Pomona College
- Portland State University
- Princeton University
- Rutgers University
- Rutgers University-Newark
- Santa Monica College
- Sarah Lawrence College
- Stanford University
- State University of New York Binghamton
- State University of New York Rockland
- State University of New York, Purchase
- Swarthmore College
- Temple University
- The New School
- Tufts University
- Tulane University
- Union College
- University of California Davis
- University of California San Diego
- University of California Santa Barbara
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of Cincinnati
- University of Hawaii at Manoa
- University of Massachusetts Amherst
- University of Michigan
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- University of North Carolina
- University of South Florida
- University of Southern California
- University of Tampa
- University of Tennessee
- University of Virginia
- University of Washington-Seattle
- University of Wisconsin, Madison
- Wellesley College
- Whitman College
- Yale University
