BALTIMORE — Johns Hopkins University has agreed to better address discrimination complaints, after a federal investigation found that the university insufficiently handled harassment complaints based on shared ancestry.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights found numerous concerns in the university's response to incidents targeting Jews, Arabs and Palestinians - including specific students and staff members.
JHU got 99 complaints of harassment based on shared ancestry between October 2023 and May 2024 - but the civil rights office found that the university generally didn't record whether they took into consideration whether these incidents "created a hostile environment for students."
The report noted:
...although the University received multiple reports that University professors directed stereotyped slurs toward Arab and Palestinian people, including in a communication one professor sent directly to his students, the University records produced to date do not reflect that the University assessed whether these professors’ comments impacted their students’ equal access to education. Similarly, University records are replete with reports that Jewish students and University community members experienced distress regarding stereotypes directed at them regarding their shared ancestry...
The report says the university failed to act on several incidents - including students posting/reposting derogatory information about students and staff invited on a trip to Israel, and circulating a post of a Jewish student who attended the March for Israel, with comments about the student's appearance.
JHU closed the complaints even though students and staff were directly targeted, said the civil rights office.
The university also didn't assess whether some incidents created a hostile environment - like reports of a professor directly telling students: “Those brutal Arabs will, God willing, pay a price like never before"; a student being asked to remove his keffiyeh while working on campus because it could be taken as a "political statement"; Jewish Zionists being characterized as “ugly” Halloween monsters; and a sign at a campus protest, with a swastika and the threat: “Go Hamas, from the river to the sea, finish the job.”
Title VI bans "discrimination against individuals, including those who are or perceived to be Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, or Buddhist, or of another religious group, if the discrimination is based on their ancestry or ethnic characteristics."
In response, Johns Hopkins University has agreed to provide annual training on handling complaints based on shared ancestry, have students and staff evaluate the climate in regards to shared ancestry, review the university's responses to each of the complaints starting on or after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in Israel, and share JHU's response to all discrimination complaints with the civil rights office.
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon said in a statement: "Johns Hopkins has agreed to take important steps necessary to ensure it adequately addresses discrimination reported to it on the basis of shared ancestry and that all its students are able to learn in an environment free of harassment."
