U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Announces Resolution of Two Complaints Against the University of Michigan Alleging Antisemitic Discrimination

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today announced that the University of Michigan (university) 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, including based on shared Jewish ancestry and shared Palestinian or Muslim ancestry.

In OCR’s review of university documentation of 75 reports the university received alleging shared ancestry harassment and/or discrimination from the 2022-23 school year through February 2024, OCR found no evidence that the university complied with its Title VI requirements to assess whether incidents individually or cumulatively created a hostile environment for students, faculty, or staff, and if so, to take steps reasonably calculated to end the hostile environment, remedy its effects, and prevent its recurrence.

For example, in October 2023, protestors shouted on the central campus about “Nazi liberation,” but University records do not identify any steps the university took to assess the existence of or redress for any resulting hostile environment from the conduct; but university records show only that the university forwarded the reports to university public affairs for response.

Similarly, the university did not assess the existence of a hostile environment or take remedial action when a Jewish student reported having been targeted and harassed on social media that same month. This student reported that after he viewed a graduate student instructor’s Instagram story that included a discussion of pro-Palestinian topics, the instructor screenshotted that the student had viewed the story and posted a new story, tagging the student in the post and showing that he had an Israeli flag in his bio, with a comment saying, “Did you like my educational talk.”

The university merely responded to the reporting student that “formal conflict resolution is not a path forward at this time” because social media “is largely going to be protected as free speech” and told the student about informal resolution pathways.

And when a student reported to the university in November 2023 that someone yelled an accusation at her that she had “terrorist” friends because she participated in a pro-Palestinian protest, the university reported that it held “restorative circles” to address the incident, but took no further action to address effects on students from the widely reported anti-Palestinian incident.

The information provided by the university to date in this investigation also raises concerns that diffuse university policies leave students, faculty, and staff unclear as to how the university will respond to alleged discrimination. In addition, although the university’s Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX office (ECRT), by university policy, is responsible for ensuring compliance with federal antidiscrimination laws, the university did not ensure that the office evaluated all reports of Title VI discrimination or oversee responses to determine compliance with Title VI.

However, the university has indicated that it is taking steps for ECRT to assume primary responsibility for addressing Title VI complaints.

To resolve the Title VI concerns OCR identified during investigation of these complaints, the university has committed to:

• Reviewing case files for each report of discrimination and/or harassment on the basis of shared ancestry during the 2023-2024 school year to determine whether the alleged conduct created a hostile environment and whether any further action is needed to provide an equitable resolution of each incident.
• Reporting to OCR on its responses to reports of discrimination, including harassment on the basis of shared ancestry, during the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years.
• Revising as necessary university policies and procedures to ensure that they adequately address the Title VI prohibition on discrimination based on race, color, and national origin, including discrimination based on a student’s actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.
• Ensuring the university coordinates compliance with Title VI through its Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX office.
• Training employees, including university law enforcement, regarding the university’s obligations under Title VI to respond to alleged discrimination, and university policies and procedures. And,
• Administering a climate assessment for students and employees to evaluate the extent to which students and/or employees are subjected to or witness discrimination and harassment based on race, color, and national origin, including discrimination based on actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, as well as knowledge of university procedures for reporting such discrimination. The university will use the results of such assessments to identify responsive steps for OCR’s review and approval.

“The University of Michigan’s comprehensive commitments today put the university on a path for the coming school year and beyond to ensure that all its students may study without antisemitic discrimination or discrimination based on the region of the world they and their families come from,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon. “I am grateful to the University of Michigan for its speedy commitment to course correct following the volatile campus conditions since October 2023.”

Title VI’s protection from national origin discrimination extends to students who experience discrimination, including harassment, based on their actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, such as students of Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, and/or South Asian descent, or citizenship or residency in a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity, or their association with this national origin/ancestry.