PROVIDENCE – Brown University is one of 60 colleges across the U.S. are on notice by the U.S. Department of Education for possible Civil Rights Act Title VI violations relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination occurring on their campuses.
Furthermore, Brown and the other higher education institutions in question received letters from USDOE warning them of “potential enforcement actions” if such colleges don’t honor Title VI to protect Jewish students on campus.
USDOE says the investigations come after several protests and alleged antisemitism occurred on college campuses across the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack and capture of Israeli citizens. Additionally, President Donald J. Trump signed at the end of January an executive order calling for additional measures to combat antisemitism against Jewish students.
Title VI prohibits any institution that receives federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color and national origin. National origin includes shared Jewish ancestry, USDOE said.
Five schools – Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University, the University of California Berkeley and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities – were immediately investigated for “widespread antisemitic harassment” that was reported on those respective campuses, USDOE said. Recently, federal officials canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia due to the school’s “continued inaction to protect Jewish students from discrimination,” the department said.
“The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
“U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.”
Brown spokesperson Brian Clark on Tuesday told Providence Business News in an email that it’s the university’s understanding there is “no new investigation or complaint” related to Brown. Rather, Clark said the letter offered a reminder of universities’ obligations related to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as well as USDOE's Office for Civil Rights’ enforcement authority.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, tensions rose on the Brown campus regarding the ongoing conflict. The matter has stirred various controversies on the Ivy League grounds last spring, including students being
arrested in protests – with those charges since being
dropped. Brown also has since implemented
various measures to combat discrimination on campus.
One measure was Brown in February creating the Office of Equity Compliance and Reporting in Brown’s division of campus life. The office handles reports focused on alleged incidents of bias, discrimination and harassment, gender discrimination and sexual violence.
The office was formed after Brown, according to a report from the university-based newspaper The Brown Daily Herald, at the time 14 pending investigations against it by the USDOE's Office for Civil Rights. Of these investigations, one pertained to an alleged Title VI violation and two others on alleged disability-based discrimination and retaliation, according to the publication.
However, Clark said Tuesday the university's OECR was not built in response to any prior investigations by USDOE against Brown. Rather, he says, it was a "transition in structure" to strengthen Brown's approach to address any discrimination on campus.
Clark also said Brown is currently subject to ongoing monitoring following a voluntary resolution agreement with OCR the university agreed to in July 2024. He said Brown in that agreement denied that it violated Title VI when handling the matters alleged in a complaint filed with OCR in January 2024 but agreed to “clarify and enhance existing policies and procedures” related to the resolution of discrimination and harassment complaints.
“We remain committed to preventing discrimination and harassment based on shared ancestry, including antisemitism and islamophobia, in all of our activities,” Clark said.
Back in October, Brown
temporarily suspended the Students for Justice in Palestine university chapter and initiated a review of alleged inappropriate behavior that occurred during a recent protest by the group. University officials said at the time there was “deeply concerning behavior” that occurred during the group’s protest on Oct. 18 over the Corporation of Brown University’s
vote to not divest from 10 companies that do business from Israel after reviewing a proposal from students requesting that the Ivy League institution do so.
Brown Executive Vice President, of Planning and Policy and Interim Vice President for Campus Life Russell C. Carey in a community note at the time claimed that university administrators, board members and staff reported such poor behaviors during the protest, including reports of banging on a vehicle, profanity being screamed at individuals at close range, screaming at individuals while filming them and making a racial epithet toward a person of color.
Since then, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island Inc. and the ACLU’s Brown University chapter are calling on the Ivy League institution to
reinstate the Students for Justice in Palestine campus chapter from its ongoing temporary suspension, with the ACLU calling the suspension “a complete prior restraint on this group’s speech.”
(UPDATED: Added 7th, 11th, 12th and 13th paragraphs to include comment from Brown University spokesperson Brian Clark. Also clarifies the university was put on notice by the U.S. Department of Education.)
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X at @James_Bessette.
