By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Education Department on Thursday noted concerns about discrimination against Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and reached a settlement with the institution to resolve the issue.
The university agreed to revise its nondiscrimination policies and procedures, including pertaining to protests and a definition of harassment that includes harassment based on actual or perceived shared ancestry. The university also agreed to develop training and surveys while assessing its response to campus protests that erupted last year against U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza, the Education Department said.
The university said no wrongdoing was found on its part, adding it voluntarily signed a resolution agreement to improve policies addressing discrimination.
Rights advocates have noted rising anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents since Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Islamist group Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars racial discrimination in U.S. education programs that receive federal funding.
U.S. universities saw months of protests in which demonstrators demanded an end to U.S. support for Israel and to college investments in companies that allegedly supported Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
In April last year, law enforcement at the behest of university administrators deployed Tasers and tear gas against student protesters at Emory University, activists said at the time.
The Education Department said it “is concerned that the gratuitous violence of the law enforcement activity reflected in widely publicized videos from the arrests during the April 2024 protests may have created a hostile environment within the campus community for Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim university members.”
U.S. government agencies have reached similar settlements with other institutions and firms since the Gaza war began, including with universities like Johns Hopkins University and the University of California.
On Thursday, the Justice Department reached a deal with DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Orlando at SeaWorld in Florida to resolve allegations of discriminatory policy against hosting Arabs.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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