Published by K5 on 2/5/2026 SEATTLE — The University of Washington is requiring all students and staff to complete an online civil rights training following a federal investigation that found the school failed to adequately respond to widespread antisemitic harassment on campus. Staff are required to complete the course by the end of March. Students have until May. The training is part of a nationwide crackdown on antisemitism at college campuses that started under the Biden administration, but intensified under President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold federal funding from universities that fail to address the issue. The United States Department of Education for Civil Rights launched investigations at more than 60 universities following pro-Palestinian protests. Federal investigators reviewed approximately 140 reports of alleged discrimination and harassment based on “shared ancestry” on the UW campus from 2022-2024. In a letter to University President Ana Mari Cauce, the Department of Education concluded UW “generally declined to take responsive action” and maintained “no university-wide tracking system” for complaints of antisemitism. The University of Washington denied any wrongdoing or liability in the settlement but agreed to the reforms as a condition of resolving the federal complaints. Now those terms are taking effect. “The university simply did not address the specific incidents, hold perpetrators accountable, and did not address the broader hostile environment,” said Denise Katz-Prober, director of legal initiatives at the Brandeis Center, a Jewish civil rights nonprofit. The university’s mandatory civil rights training is broad in scope, covering discrimination based on race, color, national origin, and other protected characteristics. It does not specifically focus on antisemitism despite being mandated to resolve antisemitism complaints. “I would expect that it would have at least a very focused approach to dealing with antisemitism,” Katz-Prober said. “The training has to use examples that illustrate the different ways in which antisemitism can manifest the different forms that it can take, especially on the university campus setting,” she said. The training requirement has caught many students off guard. “This is our first time ever hearing about it. Like, we haven’t gotten any e-mails about it whatsoever,” Amayiah Roberts, a sophomore, said. Many students, learning about the training for the first time, described it as performative and ineffective. “I don’t know if everyone is going to take it seriously,” sophomore Amayiah Roberts said. “Everyone might just speed through the answers to go through it quickly.” The university also established a Title VI Coordinator position and created a consolidated Civil Rights Compliance Office to oversee institutional compliance with federal civil rights law. The resolution agreement requires the university to implement several other changes, including regular training for employees who investigate discrimination complaints and a comprehensive campus climate assessment. The Brandeis Center said the Trump administration’s “forceful, aggressive and whole of government approach” to combating antisemitism at universities has been necessary, though the organization stopped short of fully endorsing the training as adequate. “Training is one piece, but there are so many other important aspects to a comprehensive approach,” Katz-Prober said. Several institutions have also reached agreements with the administration and accepted a series of federal demands. Columbia agreed to pay more than $220 million to the government, while Brown committed $50 million to support local workforce development. Meanwhile, the federal investigation at Harvard remains open. This week, Trump demanded that Harvard pay $1 billion to settle its federal probe, though he did not clarify how the figure was calculated or specify the damages he believed warranted such a payment.