The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced it has opened a formal investigation into a complaint alleging Jewish students at the University of Vermont (UVM) have been subjected to severe and persistent anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination. Anti-Jewish incidents ranged from the exclusion of Jewish students from a campus sexual assault survivors’ group, online harassment against Jewish students by a Teaching Assistant (TA), and the targeting of the UVM Hillel building. OCR evaluates all complaints it receives, but it only pursues investigations in those it determines warrant a more thorough investigation. Click here to read the full press release.
“We support these Jewish students at UVM and elsewhere who have the right to openly express their identification with Israel without being shunned, marginalized and excluded from campus opportunities. Every student at UVM is entitled to a college experience free from antisemitism and all other forms of discrimination. It is time for UVM to frankly acknowledge the serious concerns that have been raised and take concrete steps to address them.” Click here to read the full statement from the Jewish Community at UVM.
Yesterday, after news broke that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating anti-Semitism at the University of Vermont, President Suresh V. Garimella sent his university community an astonishingly inadequate and offensive response to the Title VI anti-Semitism complaint that the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish on Campus had filed. President Garimella’s statement shows neither reflection, nor understanding, nor remorse. Instead, Garimella demonstrates only the dismissive attitude that has left Jewish students vulnerable to harassment and discrimination, blaming the victims who blew the whistle on UVM anti-Semitism rather than pledging to respond to the problems that federal investigators will now examine. Click here to read the full statement from the Brandeis Center and Jewish on Campus.
Kenneth L. Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center, and Alyza D. Lewin, president of the Brandeis Center, issued the following statements today in response to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Resolution Letter and Agreement requiring the University of Vermont (UVM) to make substantial changes after failing to respond to numerous complaints of anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination. Click here to read the full statement.