The United States Department of Education opened an investigation Tuesday into Northwestern University’s handling of antisemitism on its campus. The probe, prompted by a complaint from Campus Reform editor in chief Zachary Marshall, will seek to determine whether the university has failed to prevent discrimination on the basis of national origin in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
In a statement published Wednesday, Northwestern acknowledged that the Department of Education had contacted the university and that it plans to cooperate with the ensuing investigation:
The University was notified by the U.S. Department of Education that it has opened an investigation into a complaint that Northwestern violated Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act. The University will respond to the Department of Education and cooperate with its investigation. The complaint against Northwestern was not filed by a member of our community but instead by an outside organization. The Department of Education is investigating dozens of universities.
Northwestern is committed to providing a safe, welcoming environment for everyone in our community. Northwestern does not tolerate antisemitism or discriminatory acts directed at any individual based upon their race, religion, national origin or other protected categories.
Marshall told the Daily Northwestern, the university’s largest student-run publication, that he “submitted the complaint as a journalist deeply concerned about the campus environment for Jewish students.”
Like many universities across the country, Northwestern has dealt with campus antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack against Israel, and like many universities across the country, the problem has garnered outside attention. During Northwestern’s NCAA football bowl game in January, Jewish advocacy group Alums for Campus Fairness (ACF) aired an advertisement calling out university president Michael Schill for what ACF perceived as his weak stance on hatred of Jews at his place of employment, pointing to statements from student groups professing their support for Hamas’s actions.
On Tuesday, Schill announced the sixteen members of the “President’s Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate,” which will include nine faculty members, two trustees, two administrators, and two current undergraduate students. When Schill first indicated his intention to form such a committee, he faced significant opposition: 65 student organizations signed a letter describing concerns over rising antisemitism as “mass hysteria and collective psychosis” and accused Schill of engaging in “the deliberate silencing and censorship of pro-Palestinian activism” by opposing the hatred of Jews.
Faculty and staff members also objected to the formation of the committee, with 163 signing an additional letter in which they wrote that they were “seriously dismayed and concerned by the email [Schill] sent on Nov. 13, ‘Announcing new committee on antisemitism and hate.'”