by P.D. Lesko

On March 10, 2025, the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office of Civil Rights sent letters to sixty colleges and universities in the United States in which the institutions’ leaders were warned of potential enforcement actions “if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities.” The University of Michigan was the only college in the state to have received the letter. Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Yale, Harvard and Johns Hopkins were among the 60 institutions of higher education that received the letter.

At the University of Michigan, the University’s Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX Office (ECRT) handles complaints against faculty/staff and the Office for Student Conflict Resolution (OSCR) handles student to student complaints. Notwithstanding this division of responsibilities, the Employee Policies and Procedures also state that ECRT “is responsible for ensuring and monitoring the University’s compliance with federal and state nondiscrimination laws.” Despite the robust staffing, results of Title VI enforcement at the University of Michigan have been lackluster, at best.

In June 2024, the Biden Dept. of Education’s Regional Program Manager for Michigan and Ohio, in a five-page letter, determined the University of Michigan would submit regular monitoring reports on its progress to improve Title VI enforcement.

The Trump administration’s concerns about antisemitic acts on college campuses, including U-M, are a continuation of the Biden administration’s investigations.

The U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office of Civil Rights under President Biden, in a June 17, 2024 letter to the University of Michigan’s Associate Counsel Kelly Cruz, sharply criticized the University’s mishandling of complaints alleging antisemitism:

“On January [redacted content], 2023, a report was filed alleging a [redacted content] showed people participating in a parade on campus while allegedly chanting for the removal and death of the Jewish people and the state of Israel. Under ‘University responsive actions’ the spreadsheet states that the University ‘[r]esponded to reporter that the case was reviewed and that the matter, as reported, appears to be outside the scope of ECRT (Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX Office). Articles showed pro-Palestinian protesters on campus…engaging in protected activity.” The report was referred to CCS (Campus Climate Support Team). A second complaint was made regarding this protest, and it, too, was closed without ECRT taking any action. The University has not to date provided OCR with documents regarding CCS responsive actions, if any.”

“[Redacted content] OSCR received a request for services from a student regarding a comment that was made on social media by a GSI. According to the student, he viewed the GSI’s Instagram story, which included a discussion of pro-Palestinian topics. The GSI then screenshotted that the student had viewed [redacted content] story and posted a new story with a comment along the lines of “Did you like my educational talk,” tagging the student in the post and showing that he had an Israeli flag in his bio. [Redacted sentences]. OSCR said to a student ‘your interest for resolution in this situation was in a more formal conflict resolution pathway. This pathway requires a violation of the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities, and evidence to substantiate that violation. I have been able to review [redacted content], and formal conflict resolution is not a path forward at this time. Using social media to communicate, regardless of the content being communicated, is largely going to be protected as free speech, unless there is a clear and direct threat. . . . As we discussed Friday, we do have many conflict resolution pathways available that do not require policy violations. The main goal for these pathways is in sharing perspective and repairing harm.’”

On Jan. 29, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism.” In that Order, government agencies, including the U.S. Dept. of Education were ordered to “(a)  Within 60 days of the date of this order, the head of each executive department or agency (agency) shall submit a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, identifying all civil and criminal authorities or actions within the jurisdiction of that agency, beyond those already implemented under Executive Order 13899, that might be used to curb or combat anti-Semitism, and containing an inventory and analysis of all pending administrative complaints, as of the date of the report, against or involving institutions of higher education alleging civil-rights violations related to or arising from post-October 7, 2023, campus anti-Semitism.”

The Mar. 10 letter from the Dept. of Education to the heads of the 60 colleges and universities stated, “Pursuant to Title VI and in furtherance of President Trump’s Executive Order ‘Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism,’ the Department launched directed investigations into five universities where widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported. The 55 additional universities are under investigation or monitoring in response to complaints filed with OCR.”

Last week, Columbia University saw the cancellation of $400 million in federal grants.

The Dept. of Education’s letter pointed that out: “Last week, the Department, alongside fellow members of the Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism including the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. General Services Administration, announced the immediate cancelation of $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University due to the school’s continued inaction to protect Jewish students from discrimination.”

Between Aug. 2022 and Feb. 2024, the University of Michigan told the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office of Civil Rights it had received 75 complaints in which individuals “alleged harassment and/or discrimination based on national origin, including shared ancestry.”

A Dept. of Education record shows that in a 2023 report made to the University of Michigan regarding an incident a student had with a student protester “related to the conflict in the Middle East,” a student participating in a pro-Palestine protest yelled at the student that she was supporting rape and murder, and that she has terrorist friends. The U-M report stated the Jewish student was quite distraught and it was clear that “the incident impacted her greatly.”

The case was closed after OSCR (Office for Student Conflict Resolution) held “restorative circles” for staff, faculty, and students.

In June 2024, the Dept. of Education’s OCR wrote in its letter to U-M attorney Kelly Cruz, “While the University may not discipline speakers for protected speech, the University retains a Title VI legal obligation to take other steps as necessary to ensure that no hostile environment based on shared ancestry persists. At minimum, therefore, the University has an obligation to evaluate whether any incidents of harassment of which it has notice rise to the level that they create a hostile environment to which the University must respond promptly and effectively.”

According to the U.S. Dept. of Education in its June 2024 letter: “Of the 75 reports in the data, the documentation submitted by the University shows that the University only investigated and made findings in a single complaint that was referred to its Office of General Counsel (OGC) and related to a request for an accommodation for religious reasons and was not regarding shared ancestry-based harassment.”