Aug. 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that George Washington University was in violation of federal civil rights laws and described it as "deliberately indifferent" to anti-Semitism on campus.
The DOJ published a letter to GWU President Ellen M. Granberg saying that the department had finished its probe of the allegations against the university and found that GWU's response to incidents of anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment of Jewish and Israeli students that "despite actual notice of the abuses occurring on its campus, GWU was deliberately indifferent to the complaints it received, the misconduct that occurred, and the harms that were suffered by its students and faculty, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
The letter from Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division Harmeet K. Dhillon offered "the opportunity to resolve this matter through a voluntary resolution agreement."
The allegations stem from campus protests in April and May 2024. The protests were about the Israeli attacks on Gaza, but some Jewish students experienced alleged anti-Semitism on several university campuses.
The letter alleged that students and faculty at GWU experienced a hostile educational environment "that was objectively offensive, severe, and pervasive. The anti-Semitic, hate-based misconduct by GWU students directed at Jewish GWU students, faculty, and employees was, in a word, shocking. The behavior was demonstrably abhorrent, immoral, and, most importantly, illegal."
