As part of a resolution agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the school will add language about antisemitism to its equal opportunity and anti-harassment policies, strengthen anti-discrimination training, submit to more federal oversight, and create protocols for responding to antisemitism allegations.
“At the heart of the resolution agreement is our reaffirmation that when an act of antisemitism occurs, we will take appropriate and necessary action to address the act, prevent its recurrence, and support those impacted,” UVM’s Office of the Provost said in an Apr. 3 statement.
Federal officials will also review antisemitism complaints and UVM responses through 2025, or until they decide such oversight is unnecessary.
In 2021, two nonprofit Jewish advocacy groups, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish on Campus, filed a complaint, alleging that Jewish students had experienced exclusion from student organizations, intimidation, harassment, and discrimination because of their support for Israel.
Students reported these incidents to UVM’s administration to no avail, the complaint stated.
OCR investigators “identified concerns over the university’s response to complaints it received of antisemitic harassment,” federal officials said. The school did not look into such complaints, ED said, adding that “responsive steps the university did take were delayed; were not designed to rectify concerns communicated to the university, including regarding the existence of a hostile environment; and may have discouraged students and staff from raising further concerns with the university or with participating in the (federal) investigation.”
