Dept. of Education finds Michigan, CUNY didn’t adequately investigate campus antisemitism, Islamophobia

Administrators at the University of Michigan and the City of University of New York failed to adequately investigate students’ reports of antisemitism and Islamophobia, the U.S. Department of Education announced on Monday. 

The department’s Office for Civil Rights, known as OCR, released the findings of its investigations into how both Michigan and CUNY handled antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents dating back to 2020, culminating in resolutions reached with both universities to end the investigations in exchange for the administrations promising to do more to take students’ complaints seriously. 

The agreements were the first to resolve investigations related to discrimination on the basis of shared ancestry — including antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Israel discrimination and anti-Palestinian racism — on college campuses since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel sparked a wave of antisemitism and ushered in a slew of more than 100 new investigations into potential civil rights violations. 

“There’s no question that this is a challenging moment for school communities across the country. The recent commitments made by the University of Michigan and CUNY mark a positive step forward,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights continues to hold schools accountable for compliance with civil rights standards, including by investigating allegations of discrimination or harassment based on shared Jewish ancestry and shared Palestinian or Muslim ancestry.” 

Jewish community advocates praised the department for resolving the complaints. In recent months, Jewish leaders have called on Congress to increase funding for OCR, which has been unable to hire additional attorneys to handle an immense increase in its caseloads since Oct. 7. More than twice as many shared ancestry investigations have been opened since Oct. 7 than in the previous seven years combined. 

“The findings are sobering, but not surprising. Both schools must take their obligations to protect students seriously,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a post on X. 

Investigators found that at Michigan, there was “no evidence” that the university complied with federal civil rights requirements mandating that the school assess whether 75 incidents of shared ancestry discrimination reported from late 2022 to early 2024 created a hostile environment for students. Because the university failed to determine whether Jewish and Muslim students faced a hostile environment, investigators also raised concerns that the university did not act “to end the hostile environment, remedy its effects and prevent its recurrence.” 

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon, who oversees OCR, said she was “grateful to the University of Michigan for its speedy commitment to course correct following the volatile campus conditions since October 2023.” The university pledged to review each report of discrimination from the 2023-2024 school year and to report on its progress assessing harassment over the next two years, as well as to better train employees to comply with federal civil rights guidelines.  

In a statement, Michigan President Santa Ono said the university “condemns all forms of discrimination, racism and bias in the strongest possible terms.” The agreement, Ono added, “reflects the university’s commitment to ensuring it has the tools needed to determine whether an individual’s acts or speech creates a hostile environment, and taking the affirmative measures necessary to provide a safe and supportive educational environment for all.” 

The resolution reached between CUNY and the Education Department combined nine open investigations alleging antisemitism and Islamophobia or anti-Arab discrimination at several CUNY campuses, including Hunter College, Brooklyn College and Queens College. The department specifically criticized the university for failing to investigate and address an alleged antisemitic incident that occurred in a 2021 class at Hunter College, and called on CUNY to reopen investigations into antisemitic or Islamophobic harassment. 

“The good news is that they are finally issuing resolution agreements for universities to make changes to address discrimination against Jewish students,” Ken Marcus, chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which helps students file civil rights complaints against universities, said of the agreements. Adding a note of caution, Marcus, who headed OCR in the Trump administration, said he had hoped for “more specificity and detail” in the agreements. “Instead, the Education Department has kicked the can down the road, requiring [CUNY] to make some vaguely described changes to its policies.” 

In a statement, William C. Thompson Jr., the CUNY board of trustees chairman, promised the university would work closely with the Education Department. “We look forward to working with the Office of Civil Rights to ensure that all members of our community feel safe and included in the CUNY mission of equal access and opportunity,” said Thompson. 

That both agreements included mentions of both antisemitism and Islamophobia — even though the two OCR complaints against Michigan only referred to antisemitism — reflects a common Biden administration practice of linking the two forms of hatred, even when the incidents are not connected. 

“We all want universities to provide equal protection for all of their students, including Jewish and non-Jewish students alike. But it’s unusual for the agency to address claims by one group by insisting that multiple groups be treated in a different way,” said Marcus. “When women come forward and say that an institution is discriminating against women, the agency doesn’t come up with an order saying that both women and men need to be treated better in the future.” 

UMich Jewish regent targeted for second time

The exterior of University of Michigan Board of Regents member Jordan Acker’s law office was vandalized overnight on Monday with the phrases “FREE PALESTINE,” “DIVEST NOW,” “FUCK YOU ACKER” and “UM KILLS” scrawled on the walls, walkway and front window. The incident is the second time during the Israel-Hamas war that Acker, who is Jewish, has been targeted by anti-Israel demonstrators. 

“It’s a disgusting escalation and pure antisemitism,” Acker, who is a former Obama administration official and has sat on the school’s Board of Regents since 2018, told Jewish Insider. “This has nothing to do with Palestine. I am one of eight [regents] and I was the only person targeted. I believe that’s because I’m Jewish. I believe this was a message to be sent to the Jewish community.”  

According to video footage obtained by the Goodman Acker personal injury law firm, which is located in a heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Southfield — about 30 minutes away from the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor — the incident occurred at approximately 2 a.m. when four masked individuals splattered the front walkway, the sign over the door and the building’s walls with red and black spray paint and the antisemitic and anti-Israel messages.

Southfield police told local newspaper Deadline Detroit that the department responded to a 911 call Monday morning and is investigating the matter. “The investigation is in its infancy,” Lt. Mo Bzeih said. “We want to gather the preliminary facts before we put out a statement. We’re canvassing the area.” 

“The vandalism that occurred at Regent Jordan Acker’s place of business is shocking and unacceptable,” University of Michigan’s president, Santa Ono, said in a statement. “Singling out this dedicated public servant and defacing his workplace in the middle of the night is an act of antisemitic cowardice that Southfield police have indicated is being investigated as a hate crime. Such harassment and attempts to intimidate have no place in a civil society and certainly no place in our university community.”

Many Michigan lawmakers and candidates for office expressed support for Acker and condemned the incident. Republican Senate candidate and former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) tagged the incident as antisemitic, while his Democratic opponent, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) called it “intimidation related to the Middle East conflict.”

“We have yet another instance of the use of intimidation related to the Middle East conflict. If your ‘protest’ tactics include vandalism and violent language, you’re not protesting — you’re breaking the law and discrediting your cause at the same time,” Slotkin said in a statement. “And anyone carrying that out should be held legally accountable.” 

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) said in a statement to JI, “Vandalism and acts of violence and hate against anyone for any reason are completely unacceptable. I condemn these actions in the strongest terms. Hate is being normalized in too many communities, and we must stand up to hate wherever and whenever we see it.”

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) wrote on X, “Jordan Acker and the Goodman Acker law firm have my love and support… so many drive by his place of work every day and it’s painful to see this attack on a place of business. Today and everyday, I denounce Jewish hate with every fiber in my being.”   

Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) told JI in a statement, “I condemn today’s antisemitic attack on University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker’s Office in Southfield. While everyone has a right to express their views, there is absolutely no place for vandalism or violent rhetoric of any kind of in our state. It’s up to all of us to call out these attacks targeting Michiganders for who they are or their religion.”

Last month, as Acker, his wife and three daughters were asleep, his doorbell app obtained footage of a stranger wearing a red keffiyeh over his face walking up to the family’s front door. He stood there for several moments, placed papers on the door and took photographs before leaving. The incident occurred in the wake of University of Michigan police breaking up an anti-Israel illegal encampment on the Diag, the main quad, that engulfed the campus for nearly a month. One of the papers, a list of demands for the leadership of the University of Michigan, was signed: “In liberation, the UMich Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”

Jewish Insider congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs and senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch contributed reporting. 

Masked anti-Israel protester shows up at UMich Regent’s home in middle of night

When Jordan Acker woke up at 6 a.m. on Wednesday in his home in Huntington Woods, a heavily Jewish suburb of Detroit, he saw several alarming notifications on his iPhone. Photos and videos from his doorbell app showed a disturbance outside his front door around 4:40 a.m., while he, his wife and their three daughters were asleep. 

A stranger wearing a red keffiyeh over his face walked up to Acker’s front door and stood there for several moments. He placed papers on the doors and took photographs before leaving. The document, a list of demands for the leadership of the University of Michigan, was signed: “In liberation, the UMich Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” 

Acker, an attorney and former Obama administration official, sits on the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan, a statewide position to which he was elected in 2018. He ran for the seat as a way to promote a safe campus environment and protect students from sexual misconduct. A Jewish Michigan alumnus, Acker knew Israel issues might come up — the school has been dealing with staunchly anti-Israel activists for years — but he never expected anything like the uproar of the last seven months. The disturbance at his home escalated things to a new level.

“It’s not a way that we handle disputes in this country, by trying to scare elected officials. I think that is something that is enormously undemocratic,” Acker told Jewish Insider on Wednesday afternoon. “I found it extremely disturbing and very menacing in thinking that someone would dress like that to come to my house at 4:40 a.m. It’s really surreal, and it’s very, very scary.”

He compared the incident to something that happened in December 2020, when two dozen protesters showed up at night outside the home of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to protest the results of the 2020 election. 

“Whether you agree with the cause or not, there is no reason to show up at my home in the middle of the night with a mask on, just like there’s no reason to show up at Jocelyn Benson’s house,” Acker said. “These tactics are fundamentally — whether they’re from the far right or far left — incredibly illiberal. They try to use fear as a tactic to get what they want, when they can’t get what they want at the ballot box. And that cannot be acceptable.” 

According to a statement from the university, more than 30 protesters showed up at the homes of several university regents Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning. In some cases, they chanted and sang; in at least one instance, they placed fake corpses wrapped in bloodstained sheets on the lawn. The groups that spearheaded the campus’ anti-Israel encampment, which disbanded a couple weeks ago, claimed responsibility via social media posts: Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) and the Transparency, Accountability, Humanity, Reparations, Investment, Resistance (TAHRIR) Coalition. (TAHRIR retweeted a post on the social media network X that accused Acker of “incitement” for complaining about the intruder online.)

“The tactics used today represent a significant and dangerous escalation in the protests that have been occurring on campus. Going to an individual’s private residence is intimidating behavior and, in this instance, illegal trespassing. This kind of conduct is not protected speech; it’s dangerous and unacceptable,” the university said in the statement. (Acker and a university spokesperson declined to say if the police have gotten involved.)

In the letter pasted to Acker’s door, the encampment protesters demanded a meeting with Michigan’s Board of Regents, the university’s governing board. They also demanded involvement in university investment decisions, university divestment “from Israeli apartheid and genocide,” a boycott of Israeli academic institutions and the full abolition of the campus police department. The protesters also seek adoption of “essential preconditions” before any meeting even takes place — including a commitment to “full amnesty” for protesters who faced disciplinary action for their role in the protests and a demand that Michigan “stop using dubious accusations of antisemitism to vilify students protesting for basic human rights and liberation.”

The letter and the middle-of-the-night visit do not make Acker more likely to meet with the group. He has said in the past that divestment is “not really a negotiable one” for him.

“I am not interested in meeting with a group led by someone who has posted that anyone who supports the Zionist state should die,” Acker said, referring to a social media post by the president of SAFE, the anti-Israel group that led the encampment. 

“My feelings on Israel and Palestine and Gaza are complicated, like a lot of Jews, by the way. And I don’t know if they’re targeting me because of that,” said Acker. “But I will say that the last six months, and certainly the last six weeks have really instilled in me a new appreciation for my own liberal Zionism and the importance of a State of Israel, and why that’s there. The level of antisemitism has become enormously scary.” 

The biggest concern for Acker is not the students whose style of activism has become increasingly extreme, even though he views that as a problem, too. 

“I’m much more concerned with the faculty, with the small group of faculty who seem to be egging on some of the worst behaviors of our students. And that, to me, is a much harder problem, because I deeply believe in academic freedom,” Acker said. 

“But I also think that with academic freedom comes a responsibility,” Acker continued, “and that responsibility requires these faculty members to do well by their students, to not put them in harm’s way, to teach them that even when they are angry, or in grief, or dealing with the complex emotions that come from seeing this conflict in Gaza, that they they channel their behaviors into ones that are not dangerous, that won’t lead to them having long-term consequences.”

Acker called for Michigan to adopt a position of institutional neutrality, like the University of Chicago (although Chicago also struggled with how to address its recent Gaza encampment). He wants to see that position extended to the classroom, so that students are free to express their views — including students who support Israel.

“You have to be proactively protecting free speech and academic freedom, and that includes, by the way, the academic freedom of students to learn without being punished for their political views, which is actually something that is most concerning, more than any of the potential violence or the encampments or anything,” said Acker. “The one thing that I’ve heard most from Jewish students is that they are deeply concerned that if they don’t take a particular position on Israel or Palestine, they may be punished academically in their classes.” 

Professors at Michigan shouldn’t be forcing students to adopt their own perspectives, Acker argued. “You’re representing the institution. It’s your job to be facilitating people’s First Amendment rights, not enforcing your own political views,” he said. “It’s become a big problem.”