U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Announces Resolution of Complaint Against Lafayette College Alleging Antisemitic Discrimination

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today announced that Lafayette College (College) has entered into a resolution agreement to ensure its compliance with Title VI of the of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI) when responding to allegations of discrimination or harassment based on shared ancestry, including based on shared Jewish ancestry.

OCR investigated the College’s response to an October 25, 2023 protest on campus and the College’s responses to notices of antisemitic and anti-Arab discrimination it received during fall 2023, and more recent events. The College engaged in many efforts to respond proactively to prevent the creation of a hostile environment during fall 2023. But the College nonetheless misapplied the legal standard, particularly with respect to harassment occurring on social media, and did not adequately discharge its obligation to take steps reasonably designed to assess the existence of, or redress any hostile environment affecting its campus. College records show inconsistent responses to the same conduct depending on whether it occurred on or off campus, responding to a student protester who carried a sign during a campus protest by repeatedly meeting with the student to discuss the harm the phrase on the sign could inflict and securing a commitment from the student never to use the phrase again in future campus protests but not responding to reports of use of the same phrase in social media or to other reports of social media content that students alleged had created a hostile environment for them.

The College’s responses were not reasonably designed to redress any hostile environment. The College appears generally not to have addressed allegations of harassment occurring on social media unless the College considered the harassment to constitute a direct threat, not recognizing its Title VI obligation – which is not limited to conduct that occurs on campus or outside social media – to redress a hostile environment.

To resolve the concerns OCR identified, the College agreed to:

• Review its response to previous reports of discrimination and/or harassment based on shared ancestry for the 2023-2024 academic year to ensure the College made a determination regarding whether the alleged conduct created a hostile environment, including incidents that occurred on social media or off campus.

• Provide OCR with documentation of the College’s response to all complaints alleging discrimination, including harassment, on the basis of shared ancestry, for the next two school years.

• Review and revise its policies and procedures to include a description of the forms of discrimination that can occur in the college environment and to ensure that the college’s response to notice of discrimination, including national origin harassment on the basis of shared ancestry, is consistent with Title VI.

• Provide training to all employees and staff responsible for investigating complaints and other reports of discrimination, including harassment, based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics (which includes antisemitism), as well as all staff involved in responding to reports of race, color, and national origin discrimination, regarding the College’s obligations under Title VI, as well as the College’s non-discrimination policies and procedures.

• Provide training to all staff and students regarding conduct prohibited by Title VI, the College’s responsibility to respond to allegations of discrimination, including harassment, based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics (which includes antisemitism), and the College’s antiharassment policies and procedures.

“Lafayette College has committed to take the steps necessary to ensure its students are not subjected to antisemitic or anti-Arab hostile environments and have the equal access to education the law guarantees to them,” said Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon. “The College’s commitments today build on many laudable practices the College already had in place to support its campus community against discrimination, importantly bringing its responses in line with applicable Title VI legal requirements.”