The U.S. Department of Education said Monday it sent letters to IU Bloomington and 59 other universities under investigation for “Title VI violations relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination.” The department warned of enforcement including cutting federal funds.
IU has not responded to a request for comment.
Reports of antisemitic incidents on college campuses have spiked since the start of the Israel-Hamas War in October 2023. At IU, Jewish students have reported encountering antisemitic harassment and threats.
In February last year, the IDS obtained a letter sent in December 2023 from IU President Pamela Whitten to then-U.S. Rep. Jim Banks outlining IU’s safety measures and antisemitism prevention actions in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack.
That letter was in response to a November 2023 letter from Banks, who’s now a U.S. Senator, that warned IU could lose federal funding if it tolerated or condoned antisemitism. Many IU faculty members condemned Banks’ letter, saying it conflated pro-Palestinian political advocacy with antisemitism.
The department’s civil rights office opened its investigation of IUB on Feb. 5, 2024, after Zachary Marschall, editor in chief of conservative media organization Campus Reform, filed a complaint about the university and several others. Marschall alleged IU didn’t adequately respond to antisemitism on campus.
Mark Bode, executive director of media relations at IU, said in February last year that IU was aware of and complying with the investigation
In the department's Monday press release, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the universities under investigation could lose federal financial support.
“That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws,” McMahon said.
On Friday, the Trump administration pulled $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University after continued high-profile protests, including large encampments last year.
That move followed a Jan. 29 executive order establishing new requirements for how officials and universities should respond to antisemitism. A White House statement published Jan. 30 about these executive orders characterized last year’s college protests as violent disruptions by “left-wing radicals” and “pro-Hamas aliens,” and indicated an intention to target those protesters for deportation and revoke student visas.
Federal immigration agents on Saturday detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who is a lawful U.S. resident and previous graduate student at Columbia University, telling him his student visa was being revoked. He was later moved to an ICE processing center in Louisiana.
A U.S. district judge blocked Khalil’s deportation Monday. Many protests, including one ongoing in Bloomington, are planned in response.
Clarification: This article has been updated to make clear IU was under investigation prior to the education department letter and add context about the initial complaint that led the department to open an investigation.
