Tens of millions in cuts to federal funding. Letters from the very best schooling official within the nation expressing disappointment. Enforcement directives to instantly deal with a “backlog” of antisemitism complaints.
The U.S. Division of Training’s Workplace for Civil Rights has taken sudden and unprecedented actions previously month highlighting its want to guard Jewish college students from discrimination. On the identical time, no such crucial has been evident in investigations into or statements on Islamophobia on faculty or campus grounds.
“This administration seems to be centered solely on responses to antisemitic incidents on campus,” mentioned Jackie Gharapour Wernz, an schooling civil rights lawyer who labored at OCR below the Obama and the primary Trump administrations. “However colleges have to be centered on each.”
‘Lip service’ to defending all as Muslim college students are focused
The identical civil rights regulation that protects Jewish college students from antisemitism — Title VI of the Civil Rights Act — additionally protects Muslim college students from Islamophobia.
Beneath the Biden administration, and particularly in mild of the Israel-Hamas struggle protests after Oct. 7, 2023, the Training Division repeatedly expressed to colleges that they have to shield Jewish, Muslim, Palestinian and Israeli college students equally.
“Jewish college students, Israeli college students, Muslim college students, Arab college students, Palestinian college students, and all different college students who reside inside our college communities have the fitting to be taught in our nation’s colleges free from discrimination,” Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights for the Training Division below the Biden administration, warned in a Pricey Colleague letter in November 2023.
The Biden administration issued the letter amid what it known as an “alarming rise” in each antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents at colleges.
Conversely, the Trump Training Division has made a minimum of 5 bulletins associated to ending antisemitism in colleges — none of which additionally expressed protections for college kids of Muslim, Arab or Palestinian backgrounds.
“They’re centering Jewish college students or others who’re experiencing antisemitic behaviors, they usually’re very clearly going after Palestinian and or Muslim college students, as within the instance at Columbia [University],” mentioned Brett Sokolow, a Title VI and Title IX schooling civil rights professional who usually works with faculty district directors looking for to adjust to federal rules. “So whereas there’s some lip service to defending all, I believe the [Title VI] enforcement instrument goes for use primarily to the good thing about those that are experiencing antisemitism.”
Final week, the Trump administration lower $400 million in funding to Columbia College over what it known as “inaction” in harassment of Jewish college students, and warned of extra cancellations to observe. Referring to anti-Israel protests that erupted on campuses over the Israel-Hamas struggle, the Training Division mentioned “any school or college that permits unlawful protests and repeatedly fails to guard college students from anti-Semitic harassment on campus shall be topic to the lack of federal funding.”
“That is solely the start,” mentioned Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant lawyer common for civil rights and head of the federal Joint Job Pressure to Fight Anti-Semitism, in a joint March 7 assertion with the Training Division.
Only a few days later, Trump vehemently supported Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s arrest of distinguished Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, saying the transfer was the primary of “many to return.” Khalil, a authorized everlasting resident of the USA and up to date Columbia graduate, helped lead campus protests opposing the struggle in Gaza.
Addressing a ‘backlog’ of antisemitism complaints
Israel-Hamas struggle protests erupted on greater schooling and Okay-12 campuses below the Biden administration.
As a part of its broader effort to crack down on Title VI after Oct. 7, 2023, the Training Division’s OCR opened civil rights investigations into complaints of each Islamophobia and antisemitism. Its caseload had gotten so unwieldy that Lhamon and then-Training Secretary Miguel Cardona pleaded on the time with Congress for extra funding to assist investigative workers and deal with the excessive variety of complaints.
In a single high-profile instance in 2023, the division opened an investigation into New York Metropolis Public Faculties, the nation’s largest faculty system, for allegedly failing to guard college students from a hostile surroundings ensuing from each antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Towards the tail finish of Biden’s presidency, the administration had begun resolving the inflow of Title VI complaints raised after the most recent Israel-Hamas struggle.
However the Trump administration, in a March 7 assertion, has referred to this OCR’s Title VI caseload as a “backlog of Biden Administration-era complaints alleging antisemitism” and mentioned the decision agreements below Biden have been “toothless” and proceed to offer “little to no treatment for Jewish college students.”
Whereas curbing consciousness round Islamophobia and Muslim college students’ protections, the brand new administration has additionally reopened Title VI investigations into most of the identical establishments that had already reached settlement agreements over alleged antisemitism with OCR below Biden, mentioned Harold Jordan, nationwide schooling fairness coordinator on the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania who has usually labored with OCR.
Nevertheless, quantifying the Training Division’s efforts to resolve each Islamophobia and antisemitism circumstances below the Trump administration is troublesome. Though the administration has been publicly lighting a hearth below colleges for his or her dealing with of alleged antisemitism incidents, it has not up to date its web site to replicate any pending civil rights investigations since Jan. 14, 2025 — the Tuesday earlier than Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. Previous to the inauguration, OCR up to date its pending and settled investigations each Tuesday for the sake of public transparency.
“The Workplace for Civil Rights shouldn’t be selecting and selecting whose rights are vital,” mentioned Lhamon, who cracked down on Title VI violations following Oct. 7 whereas at OCR. “So you realize, it’s totally disturbing to me to listen to solely about some sorts of hurt within the press releases and the general public bulletins of the division now.”
The Training Division didn’t reply to Okay-12 Dive’s a number of requests for touch upon whether or not it intends to guard Muslim college students and college students from Muslim-majority international locations as it’s defending Jewish and Israeli college students, or on the standing of complaints involving alleged Islamophobia particularly in mild of elevated incidents following Oct. 7.
Backdrop of rising Islamophobia
Because the Trump administration is seemingly sidelining Muslim and Arab college students, incidents of Islamophobia on faculty grounds rise.
In 2024, schooling discrimination was among the many most typical kinds of complaints filed with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights advocacy group, in accordance with the group’s annual report launched March 11. That is along with complaints of bullying of Muslim college students, the CAIR report mentioned.
CAIR is anticipating Muslim college students’ Title VI civil rights complaints to solely improve below the present administration and is urging the Trump administration to oppose each antisemitism and Islamophobia, together with all types of bigotry.
The ACLU agrees. “We wish each allegation of discrimination that falls throughout the purview of that division — you realize, race, gender, nationwide origin, and so on. — to be taken severely,” mentioned Jordan.
“That features college students who’ve complained that they’re being mistreated as a result of they’re Muslim. And that doesn’t seem like taking place within the present administration at this second.”