Boston University is one of 60 universities under investigation by the United States Department of Education for Title VI violations “relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination,” according to a March 10 press release from the DOE Office for Civil Rights.
OCR announced it sent a letter to BU and 59 other universities warning of “potential enforcement actions” if the universities fail to uphold Title VI commitments to safeguard Jewish students on campus.
The press release said letters were sent to universities currently under scrutiny for violating Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or origin.
BU Spokesperson Colin Riley declined to comment.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the press release the DOE is “deeply disappointed” Jewish college students “continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year,” and that U.S. taxpayers’ support of universities is a “privilege.”
Other Massachusetts higher education institutions under investigation include Emerson College, Harvard University, Tufts University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Wellesley College.
Michael Zank • Mar 17, 2025 at 8:52 am
I hope that Jewish students, faculty, staff and alumni will join me in standing up for our institution and others like BU. I love Israel and was shocked by outbursts of anti-Israel rhetoric all over the country and the world after innocent Israelis were massacred and abducted from their homes in kibbuzim and from a music festival by Hamas and other terrorists in October of 2023. But I came to understand the many protesters who spoke up against the cruel campaign of destruction that followed the Palestinian incursion. What Hamas did cannot be justified as legitimate resistance to the Israeli regime of military occupation of Palestinian lands, but what Israel has done to the people of Gaza cannot be justified as an appropriate response. After nearly 50,000 deaths, including women, children, and the elderly, and the infrastructure and housing stock of its two million residents in ruins, Israel must be held to account for its war on Palestinian lives and its denial of Palestinian rights. To say so is not anti-Semitic. And for the US government to go after universities that respect the freedom of speech and protect their students and programs from undue interference is an act of intimidation that we must reject and resist in the name of our constitutional rights as Americans.