The U.S. Department of Education announced on Tuesday that it resolved a complaint alleging “numerous incidents of antisemitism” at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, “including the recurring appearance of swastikas throughout campus, mezuzahs ripped off students’ doors and a brick being thrown through the window of a Jewish fraternity.”
The department investigates complaints under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act for alleged discrimination based on “shared ancestry,” which includes antisemitism. It opened an investigation against the Illinois public school in March 2020.
Between 2015 and December 2023, the university received reports of 139 incidents that reflected alleged bias based on shared ancestry, which the department reviewed. It found that the university did not meet its Title VI obligations “to assess whether a hostile environment was created for students, faculty or staff related to any of the complaints the university received.”
Of those 139, 135 (97%) alleged Jew-hatred and four (nearly 3%) related to accused anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian or anti-Arab bias.
Robin Kaler, associate chancellor of strategic communications and marketing at the university, told JNS that the school’s “full range of cultures, beliefs, faiths and perspectives” are “our greatest strength, and we do not condone expressions of antisemitism, Islamophobia or hatred and harm against any individual or groups.”
“We remain fully committed to fostering inclusion and respect and will never tolerate hate, discrimination or violence,” Kaler said.
She added that the school is “pleased” that the federal government “determined that it was appropriate to resolve the complaint through a voluntary resolution agreement in which it makes no finding against the university.”
“The agreement reflects the university’s commitment to enhance our ongoing efforts to provide a safe and supportive educational environment,” Kaler said, adding that the school is “proud” to work with the government to “implement measures that build on our ongoing work and take new steps to bring consistency and transparency in addressing discrimination and harassment based on national origin and shared ancestry.”
“Recognizing the national rise in reports of antisemitism, the university has worked diligently for several years with Jewish stakeholders and recently developed an updated common set of shared values and expectations related to combatting issues of antisemitism on campus,” she added.
“The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has now agreed to take the steps necessary to ensure its education community can learn, teach and work without an unredressed antisemitic hostile environment, or any other hostility related to stereotypes about shared ancestry,” stated Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights at the department.
The public school agreed to seven measures, including reviewing policies on bias (and recognizing hostile environments can arise off-campus or on social media), potentially revising its “protest and demonstration policy to ensure university law enforcement responses related to protests and demonstrations are applied equitably and in a manner compliant with Title VI” and providing the Education Department with information about complaints based on shared ancestry in the coming academic year.