The U.S. Department of Education announced on Tuesday that it is investigating Rutgers University, the Los Angeles Unified School District and University of California, Santa Cruz under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The department and its Office for Civil Rights publicize new investigations weekly on Tuesdays. They don’t typically specify the reasons for the probes beyond saying they are for alleged discrimination for “shared ancestry,” which includes religion.
According to a separate listing on the Education Department website, the investigations of Rutgers and Los Angeles district relate particularly to religion. It wasn’t immediately clear if the one at the California state university was also connected to alleged religious discrimination.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey has several campuses. The U.S. Department of Education identified the campus in New Brunswick, N.J., as the one that is being probed.
“Rutgers fully cooperates with all investigations,” Kevin Lorincz, the public school’s communications director, told JNS.
Lorincz noted that Jonathan Holloway, the university’s president, has said that “Rutgers stands against antisemitism and against hate in all its pernicious forms.”
“The university strives to be a safe and supportive environment for all our students, faculty and staff,” Lorincz told JNS. “We reject absolutely intolerance based on religion, national origin, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability or political views.”
The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nonprofit with a long history of anti-Israel statements, said in late April that it and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee had filed a Title VI complaint against Rutgers, citing an “ongoing, patterned anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim bigotry.” It wasn’t clear if that was the complaint that the Education Department is investigating.
Holloway was one of the university leaders who testified in a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on May 23.
“Dr. Holloway, you accepted eight of 10 encampment demands, including an egregious amnesty deal to Rutgers students and faculty involved in the encampment,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the committee chairwoman, said during the hearing. “I would like to know what sort of message you think that sends to your Jewish students.”
Scott Hernandez-Jason, an assistant vice chancellor at UC Santa Cruz, told JNS that the public university “was notified of an investigation opened by the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Education relating to allegations of discrimination involving shared ancestry.”
“We will cooperate fully with the investigation,” he told JNS. “UC Santa Cruz strives to sustain an environment in which all students feel respected, safe, and supported. We take all allegations of discrimination seriously.”
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Unified School District told JNS that the U.S. Department of Education had notified the district of “a complaint which does not allege antisemitism.”
Even before receiving the complaint, the district “has already been engaged in addressing the matter,” the district said.
