Federal officials reviewed 440 reports of alleged discrimination on Rutgers University campuses between July 2023 and June 2024, most against Jewish students. (Daniella Heminghaus for New Jersey Monitor)
Rutgers University will review its nondiscrimination policies, analyze discrimination complaints, and launch additional training for campus police and others responsible for investigating alleged bias incidents under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, the department announced Thursday.
The agreement comes months after encampments formed on the university’s New Brunswick and Newark campuses to protest the war in Gaza, and it is meant to resolve reports of bias against Jewish and Muslim students spurred amid conflict in the Middle East.
Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights with the Department of Education, said the agreement will address serious issues of noncompliance with federal law “regarding different treatment of students based on stereotypes about the countries students and their families come from.”
Under the agreement, Rutgers is required to review policies regarding the enforcement of Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on race, color, and national origin.
The university will be required to send a list of alleged discrimination incidents during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years and its responses to them to the Department of Education’s civil rights office for review.
It must also review all students and student groups informed of potential disciplinary violations or who faced such punishments during the 2023-2024 school year and provide training to campus police, workers tasked with investigating reports of discrimination and harassment, and all other employees.
“The nearly 300 complaints of antisemitic and anti-Zionist vandalism, doxing, and harassment investigated by the Department of Education are abhorrent and unacceptable. Rutgers must now make an unequivocal commitment to meaningful reform, which can be achieved without infringing on academic freedom and the right to assemble and protest,” said Rabbi David Levy, New Jersey director for the American Jewish Committee.
Rutgers will also be required to issue a statement expressing intolerance for discrimination to all students and employees and hold listening sessions with relevant groups.
The Department of Education reviewed 440 reports of alleged discrimination on Rutgers University campuses between July 2023 and June 2024, of which 293 were alleged discrimination against Jewish students and 147 against Palestinian, Arab, South Asian, or Muslim students.
Among the reports were instances of targeted threats against Jewish students and vandalism against a Jewish fraternity, a Jewish student’s dorm room, the Bildner Center for Jewish Studies, and a university Center for Islamic Life.
The Office of Civil Rights also reviewed allegations of doxxing of pro-Palestinian students and the university’s alleged removal of flyers, posters, and flags about Palestine.
“The Rutgers community stands firmly against discrimination and harassment in all its forms, and the university will always strive to strengthen the policies and practices that protect our students, faculty, and staff. Rutgers is grateful to the Office of Civil Rights for its guidance,” the university said in a statement.
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