Temple University resolves civil rights case alleging failure to address antisemitism

The university will enact ‘remedial’ policies for past, inadequately managed investigations of discrimination and apprise OCR of every discrimination complaint it receives until the conclusion of the 2025-2026 academic year.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

Temple University in Philadelphia has settled a civil rights complaint with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), agreeing to address what the agency described as several reports of discrimination and harassment, including “incidents of antisemitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Palestinian conduct.”

According to a series of documents shared by OCR on Tuesday, the university’s responses to discrimination based on shared ancestry raised “concerns” that it violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids educational institutional receiving federal funds from failing to prevent or disrupt bigoted behavior.

OCR received reports of dozens of examples of antisemitic incidents which occurred at the university during the 2023-2024 academic year, including the harassment of a Jewish professor and the vandalizing of a Jewish student’s artwork.

In many, if not most, instances, the university declined to pursue disciplinary charges against the alleged perpetrator.

While OCR’s investigation found that the university has “consistently taken proactive and responsive steps to address instances of harassment based on shared ancestry that affected the university community and to support an inclusive and nondiscriminatory campus environment,” the probe also found points of concern.

“OCR identified Title VI compliance concerns because the university’s actions did not consistently include taking steps to assess whether incidents of which it had notice individually or cumulatively created a hostile environment for students, faculty, or staff,” the agency said in describing what precipitated its investigation of Temple.

“OCR also identified concerns with the university’s handling of these reports because they were addressed in isolation by multiple campus departments and offices with little to no information sharing among them. This in turn resulted in an apparent failure to assess whether the incidents cumulatively created a hostile environment for university students, faculty, and staff.”

Temple University and OCR have now agreed on a remedy, entering into an agreement to resolve the latter’s concerns.

The university will, for example, enact “remedial” policies for past, inadequately managed investigations of discrimination and apprise OCR of every discrimination complaint it receives until the conclusion of the 2025-2026 academic year.

It will also conduct a “climate” survey to measure students’ opinions on the severity of discrimination on campus, the results of which will be used to “create an action plan” which OCR did not define but insisted on its being “subject to OCR approval.”

The agency’s assistant secretary for civil rights, Catherine Lhamon, heralded the agreement as leading a path towards “full compliance with federal civil rights protections against discrimination.”

Lhamon added, “OCR looks forward to working with Temple throughout its implementation of the resolution agreement to ensure Temple, students, faculty, and staff are able to learn and work in an environment free from harassment and discrimination.”

Temple was the most recent — but hardly the first — school to reach a settlement after being accused of failing to combat anti-Jewish discrimination on campus.

Late last month, Occidental College settled a civil right complaint alleging antisemitism — brought by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law — before OCR could render its own ruling, agreeing to “sweeping reforms” of its handling of antisemitism.

According to the ADL and the Brandeis Center, the college will refer to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism during all future investigations of antisemitic conduct and add a section on antisemitism to its educational programming on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“This agreement demonstrates Occidental College’s commitment to counter all forms of contemporary antisemitism and underscores their recognition that effectively combating antisemitism requires understanding the relationship between Jewish identity, Israel, and Zionism,” Brandeis Center president Alyza Lewin said in a statement.

“We are gratified by the school’s engagement in meaningful discussions at the highest levels of the administration, and we are heartened that Occidental has committed to creating a safer environment for Jewish students. When implemented, this agreement will help ensure that Jewish students are able to learn and thrive in an environment free from antisemitic hate, discrimination, and harassment.”

Other higher education institutions have faced legal action over their handling of antisemitism since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last October, since which campuses across the US have seen a surge in antisemitic incidents.

In June, Columbia University settled a civil lawsuit in which it was accused by a student of neglecting its obligation to foster a safe learning environment amid riotous pro-Hamas proteststhat were held at the school throughout the final weeks of the academic year.

The resolution of the case, first reported by Reuters, called for Columbia to hire a “Safe Passage Liaison” who will monitor protests and “walking escorts” who will accompany students whose safety is threatened around the campus.

Other details of the settlement included “accommodations” for students whose academic lives are disrupted by protests and new security policies for controlling access to school property.

In July, New York University agreed to pay an undisclosed sum of money to settle a lawsuit brought by three students who sued the school for responding, allegedly, to antisemitic discrimination “with deliberate indifference.”

By resolving the case, NYU avoided a lengthy trial which would have revealed precisely who and which office received but failed to address numerous reports that — according to the court documents filed in November — NYU students and faculty “repeatedly abuse, malign, vilify, and threaten Jewish students with impunity” and that “death to k—es” and “gas the Jews” were chanted by pro-Hamas supporters at the school.

NYU did not merely pay money to muzzle its accusers, however.

Over a month after the settlement was reached it updated its Non-Discrimination and Harassment Policy (NDAH), including in it language which identified “Zionist” as a racial dog whistle that sometimes conceals the antisemitic intent of speech and other conduct that denigrates and excludes Jews.

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the policy acknowledges the “coded” subtleties of antisemitic speech and its use in discriminatory conduct that targets Jewish students and faculty.

NYU went further, recognizing that Zionism is central to the identities of the world’s 15.7 million Jews, an overwhelming majority of whom believe the Jewish people were destined to return to their ancient homeland in the land of Israel after centuries of exile.

“For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity. Speech and conduct that would violate the NDAH if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the NDAH if directed toward Zionists,” the university said.

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