Published by Wall Street Journal on 11/17/23; Story by Joseph Pisani. Education Department is looking into seven complaints alleging antisemitic and anti-Muslim harassment at colleges and one K-12 school district The Education Department is investigating several schools over reports of harassment against Jewish and Muslim students in response to ongoing campus tensions related to the Israel-Hamas war. The department is investigating Columbia University, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley College, Lafayette College, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and the Maize Unified School District in Kansas. The schools are under investigation for alleged violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which protects students from, among other things, discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics. College campuses have become a hotbed for tension following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with protests often drawing national attention. Jewish and Muslim advocacy groups have reported more harassment, intimidation and assaults around the country since the attack. The surge of threats has fueled widespread calls for schools to keep students on both sides of the conflict safe. The Education Department said five of the complaints allege antisemitic harassment and two allege harassment against Muslims. It declined to provide further details. Schools that don’t protect students from discrimination and refuse recommendations from the Education Department’s civil rights office could lose federal funding, the department said. “Hate has no place in our schools, period,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement Thursday. The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a Jewish advocacy group, filed complaints to the Education Department against Penn and Wellesley last week, alleging the schools didn’t do enough to protect Jewish students from antisemitism. The Brandeis Center said schools should provide mandatory training on antisemitism to staff and update their policies on antisemitism, among other remedies. “The swift responses to our complaints reaffirm how severe the antisemitism crisis is on college campuses and sends an important signal to university leaders,” said Kenneth Marcus, the Brandeis Center’s founder and chairman. Penn and Wellesley said they have taken steps to combat antisemitism on campus. Columbia declined to comment on the investigation. Cooper Union, based in New York City, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Lafayette College, in Easton, Pa., said it doesn’t know why it was included in the department’s investigation, but that it would cooperate. Maize Unified School District, which oversees K-12 schools in Maize, Kan., also said it would cooperate. Schools have struggled to navigate the national scrutiny brought on by campus protests. Penn and other elite institutions, including Harvard University, have faced pressure from billionaire donors threatening to cut funding to schools that take actions they disagree with. Schools are also facing challenges directly from students, some of whom are taking their universities to court. The University of Florida’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-Palestinian group, sued the chancellor of Florida’s university system and other Florida officials this week for ordering a shutdown of the group at the state’s public universities. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the group, said in court documents that disbanding the group violated students’ rights to free speech. The chancellor, Raymond Rodrigues, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Three Jewish students sued New York University on Tuesday, saying the school didn’t do enough to stop antisemitism on campus, making them feel unsafe. An NYU spokesman said the lawsuit’s allegations were false and that it “paints a bogus picture of conditions on NYU’s campus.” NYU said this week it plans to open a center for studying antisemitism next year.