Tag: probe

  • EEOC asks court to force Penn response in antisemitism probe

    EEOC asks court to force Penn response in antisemitism probe

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    Dive Brief:

    • A Pennsylvania federal district court should force the University of Pennsylvania to comply with a subpoena requesting information in an ongoing investigation of alleged discrimination against Jewish employees at the institution, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a Tuesday filing.
    • EEOC said it first issued the subpoena in July, to which Penn submitted a petition to revoke the subpoena in its entirety. EEOC denied the petition but served Penn with a partially modified subpoena that it said addressed objections raised by the university. EEOC claimed Penn did not comply with a response deadline of Sept. 23.
    • The agency asked the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to direct Penn to produce all requested information, including data pertaining to discrimination complaints made by employees as well as participants in listening sessions held by a Penn antisemitism task force. In an email, a Penn spokesperson denied EEOC’s claims, stating that the university “responded in good faith to all the subpoena requests” but objected to providing personal and confidential information of Jewish employees without their consent.

    Dive Insight:

    The filing is part of an ongoing EEOC investigation as well as a broader series of inquiries regarding alleged Jewish discrimination and antisemitism at prominent U.S. universities. In a press release, EEOC said Tuesday’s filing stemmed from a 2023 commissioner’s charge filed by Andrea Lucas, its current chair.

    Per court documents, EEOC said the charge alleged a pattern of antisemitic behavior and that Penn subjected Jewish employees to a hostile work environment based on national origin, religion and race.

    “An employer’s obstruction of efforts to identify witnesses and victims undermines the EEOC’s ability to investigate harassment,” Lucas said in EEOC’s press release. “In such cases, we will seek court intervention to secure full cooperation.”

    The Penn spokesperson told HR Dive that Penn “cooperated extensively with the EEOC, providing over 100 documents, totaling nearly 900 pages” but refused to provide lists of, or personal contact information for, Jewish employees, Jewish student employees and persons associated with Jewish organizations.

    The spokesperson also denied EEOC’s claims that the university obstructed access to employees who may have submitted discrimination claims and said that it provided the information of employees who consented to doing so. EEOC rejected Penn’s offer to help the agency reach employees who were willing to speak with EEOC, the spokesperson said.

    “Penn has worked diligently to combat antisemitism and protect Jewish life on campus,” the spokesperson said.

    The agency’s investigation mirrors similar probes of alleged antisemitic discrimination at California State University and Columbia University. Faculty members at Columbia and Columbia-affiliated Barnard College reportedly received text messages from EEOC asking them to complete a survey last April.

    Penn and other institutions drew criticism and scrutiny for their handling of on-campus demonstrations and other related incidents amid the Israel-Hamas war. Former Penn President Elizabeth Magill was among the administrators asked to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives in 2023 — just months after the conflict began — on responding to antisemitism. House Republicans later launched their own probe of Penn’s and other universities’ antisemitism responses, Higher Ed Dive reported.

    Penn convened an antisemitism task force in response to these developments, which published a report in May 2024 containing findings and recommendations for the university and condemning antisemitism.

    Lucas and EEOC have since publicly encouraged workers who have experienced antisemitism on college campuses to submit employment discrimination charges to the agency.

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  • UC Berkeley TPUSA Event Protests Spark Arrests, DOJ Probe

    UC Berkeley TPUSA Event Protests Spark Arrests, DOJ Probe

    Protesters confronted police outside a Turning Point USA event on UC Berkeley’s campus Nov. 10.

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    Protests of a Turning Point USA event at the University of California, Berkeley, campus Monday sparked arrests and investigation announcements from top U.S. Department of Justice officials, who alleged “Antifa” involvement. The DOJ was already investigating the UC system over various allegations, and the Trump administration has demanded UCLA pay $1.2 billion and make other concessions.

    “Antifa is an existential threat to our nation,” Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X Tuesday. “The violent riots at UC Berkeley last night are under full investigation by the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force.”

    Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general supervising the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, also said her division will investigate. “I see several issues of serious concern regarding campus and local security and Antifa’s ability to operate with impunity in CA,” she wrote on X.

    Dan Mogulof, a UC Berkeley spokesperson, told Inside Higher Ed Wednesday that there was only one reported incident of violence: A person with a ticket to the event was hit in the head by a glass bottle or jar thrown from a crowd of protesters. The victim was transported to Highland Hospital by ambulance but was “upright and conscious,” Mogulof said, adding that police are reviewing videos to see who might have thrown the object.

    In an incident that Mogulof said people mistakenly believed was connected to the protest, the City of Berkeley Police Department said its officers were monitoring the protest when they saw a fight between two men. Police determined one of them had stolen a chain from the other and the other was attempting to reclaim it, and the man who allegedly stole the chain was arrested on suspicion of robbery and battery resulting in injury.

    Mogulof also said campus police arrested two people for allegedly failing to comply with directions and, the night before the protest, arrested four students for alleged felony vandalism for trying to hang something on the historic Sather Gate. At the protest itself, Mogulof said, there were people who “self-identified as Antifa,” but he didn’t know whether they were part of an organized group.

    In a statement, the university said, “There is no place at UC Berkeley for attempts to use violence or intimidation to prevent lawful expression or chill free speech. The University is conducting a full investigation and intends to fully cooperate with and assist any federal investigations.”

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  • Video Allegedly Showing U of Iowa Promoting DEI Sparks Probe

    Video Allegedly Showing U of Iowa Promoting DEI Sparks Probe

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    Following a complaint by Iowa governor Kim Reynolds, the state attorney general’s office is investigating a video that allegedly shows a University of Iowa administrator saying the institution is still promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, despite the state’s ban.

    Fox News Digital published a story earlier this week based on what it called an “undercover video,” which shows a woman identified as Drea Tinoco, assistant director for leadership and student organization development at the university, saying, “On behalf of my office, we’re still going to talk about DEI, we’re still going to do all the DEI things.”

    The story doesn’t specify who recorded the video or whether they were working for Fox or another entity. The conservative group Accuracy in Media has released similar videos allegedly revealing employees skirting DEI prohibitions in other states, but AIM president Adam Guillette said the video isn’t from his organization.

    In the video, dated July 2, the woman also says, “DEI and student organizations and all of that, it is real, it still exists, we’re still doing DEI work.” Though it’s not in the clip, Fox also reported that Tinoco called Reynolds, a Republican, “cuckoo bananas.”

    Tinoco didn’t respond to Inside Higher Ed’s requests for comment Thursday. In an email, a university spokesperson didn’t confirm or deny whether the video is real or whether Tinoco is the person shown in it, saying, “Personnel matters are considered confidential.”

    Last year, Reynolds signed legislation banning DEI at public universities. In a statement Tuesday, Reynolds said, “I’m appalled by the remarks made in this video by a University of Iowa employee who blatantly admits to defying DEI restrictions I signed into law on May 9, 2024.”

    She filed a complaint with Attorney General Brenna Bird, another Republican, who announced her office is investigating. University president Barbara Wilson additionally told the Iowa Board of Regents Wednesday that her institution has “launched an immediate and comprehensive investigation.”

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  • Trump administration opens a fourth probe into George Mason University

    Trump administration opens a fourth probe into George Mason University

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    Dive Brief:

    • The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a probe into George Mason University over its admissions and scholarship practices as well as its response to antisemitism, the agency announced Monday. It follows a probe into the university’s employment practices announced last week.
    • In a letter to the head of George Mason’s board, Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said the agency would consider whether George Mason’s student practices violate Title VI, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin at federally funded institutions. 
    • Dhillon’s letter made no specific allegations against the university, and an agency spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday on what prompted the probe. In a statement Monday, the university’s board of visitors said it would “respond fully and promptly to the requests from the U.S. Government.”

    Dive Insight:

    The Trump administration has set its sights on George Mason as it widens its attacks on universities based on their diversity programs, approach to pro-Palestinian protests and other practices that run counter to the president’s political agenda.

    The latest investigation is at least the fourth probe the Trump administration has launched into the university. Dhillon gave George Mason until Aug. 1 to provide “a series of certifications, responses, and productions of information, data, and materials” to the agency. 

    In its statement, the university’s board of visitors said that it has a fiduciary obligation “to ensure that the University continues to thrive as the largest public university in Virginia,” adding, “This includes making sure that GMU fully complies with federal anti-discrimination laws as it excels in its mission.”

    Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat and the ranking member on the House’s education committee, blasted the Trump administration’s investigations into George Mason in a statement Tuesday.

    “Under this Administration, the government’s Offices of Civil Rights have adopted a radical reinterpretation of our civil rights laws to attack diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility,” Scott said. “The Trump Administration’s selective actions undermine the pursuit of justice, and the independence and academic freedom of America’s institutions of higher education.” 

    Late last week, Dhillon informed the university of a similar probe under Title VII, which bars employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.  

    In a July 17 letter, she alleged that George Mason “may be engaged in employment practices that discriminate against employees, job applicants, and training program participants based on race and sex.” 

    Dhillon cited internal emails and comments from George Mason President Gregory Washington seeking to promote diversity and equity in the hiring and tenure processes, as well as antiracism throughout the university’s operations. 

    Prior to that, the Trump administration opened two separate investigations over claims that the university hasn’t done enough to respond to antisemitism and illegally uses race in employment decisions.

    In a July 18 post, Washington rejected the government’s allegations of discrimination and explained that the comments cited by Dhillon came in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, who was Black, by a White police officer in 2020. 

    “As part of addressing this national reckoning, we were examining ourselves, looking for ways to become better,” Washington said, adding that diversity efforts were part of a state-mandated initiative, and the public expected George Mason to “play a meaningful part in creating structures and programming to address old biases and persistent inequalities in business operations.”  

    He also said, “It is inaccurate to conclude that we created new university policies or procedures that discriminated against or excluded anyone,” and added that “our systems were enhanced to improve on our ability to consistently include everyone for consideration of every employment opportunity.”

    The Trump administration’s targeting of George Mason comes shortly after the Justice Department pushed former University of Virginia President Jim Ryan to announce his abrupt resignation in June. The university was, like George Mason, under investigation by the administration over its diversity initiatives.

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  • George Mason University faces federal probe into hiring and promotion practices

    George Mason University faces federal probe into hiring and promotion practices

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    The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday opened an investigation into George Mason University to determine whether it discriminates against employees based on sex and race, including in promotion and tenure decisions.

    The news comes after the U.S. Department of Education opened two investigations into the public institution earlier this month over claims the university hasn’t done enough to respond to antisemitism and illegally uses race in employment decisions.

    The flurry of federal inquiries raises questions regarding the future of George Mason’s president, after pressure from the Justice Department pushed former University of Virginia President Jim Ryan to announce his abrupt resignation in June.

    3 probes in 3 weeks

    In a Thursday letter to George Mason, DOJ alleged that “race and sex have been motivating factors in faculty hiring decisions to achieve ‘diversity’ goals” under President Gregory Washington’s tenure. The agency cited Biden administration-era emails and statements from Washington in which he discussed a desire to support diversity and faculty of color and oppose racism on an institutional level.

    The DOJ’s letter opens an investigation into whether the university has violated Title VII, which bars employers from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. 

    “When employers screen out qualified candidates from the hiring process, they not only erode trust in our public institutions — they violate the law, and the Justice Department will investigate accordingly,” Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general of DOJ’s civil rights division, said in a statement.

    The agency said it has “not reached any conclusions” yet and called on the university to provide relevant information.

    George Mason did not immediately respond to a Friday request for comment on DOJ’s investigation.

    “Painted as discriminatory”

    On Wednesday, Washington strongly repudiated similar allegations from the Education Department. The agency is investigating the university’s faculty hiring practices over potential violations of Title VI, which bars federally funded institutions from discriminating based on race, color or national origin.

    “Our diversity efforts are designed to expand opportunity and build inclusive excellence — not to exclude or advantage any group unlawfully,” he said in a statement July 16.

    The university’s faculty performance evaluations do not “use race or anti-racism measures as determinants of institutional success,” Washington said, and George Mason’s promotion and tenure policies do not give preferential treatment based on protected characteristics.

    The university president said that all inclusivity work done by a task force at George Mason aligned with the One Virginia Plan, a state-level initiative promoting diversity and inclusion in the state government’s workforce.

    The plan, established during former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration, is set to conclude at the end of 2025 and is unlikely to be extended by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a vehement opponent of diversity and inclusion efforts.

    Washington, the first Black president to lead George Mason, also commented on “the “profound shift in how Title VI is being applied,” in what he called “a stark departure from the spirit in which civil rights law was written.”

    “Longstanding efforts to address inequality — such as mentoring programs, inclusive hiring practices, and support for historically underrepresented groups — are in many cases being reinterpreted as presumptively unlawful,” Washington said. “Broad terms like ‘illegal DEI’ are now used without definition, allowing virtually any initiative that touches on identity or inclusion to be painted as discriminatory.”

    The Education Department never publicly announced its first investigation into George Mason, which alleges that the university failed to respond “effectively to a pervasive hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty.” George Mason confirmed the investigation on July 3, though a conservative news outlet began publishing government documents about the case the day before.

    Washington predicted many of the obstacles George Mason has faced this month in an interview with ProPublica and The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

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  • Democratic senators call for probe of Trump Education Department cuts

    Democratic senators call for probe of Trump Education Department cuts

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    Democrat efforts to challenge President Donald Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education mounted Thursday, as 11 senators asked the agency’s acting inspector general, René Rocque, to investigate the push. 

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren and senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were among those requesting an evaluation of whether the administration is undermining the Education Department’s ability to provide students with equal access to education and to help state and local governments’ education systems

    “Decimating the Department of Education’s abilities to administer financial aid, investigate civil rights violations, conduct research on educational outcomes, and oversee the use of federal education grants threatens to have disastrous consequences for American students, teachers and families,” they wrote in a March 27 letter to Rocque. 

    “The Trump Administration’s further attempts to close the Department entirely and transfer its responsibilities over to other agencies will likely interrupt and degrade education programs and services, causing additional pain for the 62 million students across the country that the Department serves.” 

    The administration’s gutting of the Education Department not only impacted nearly half of the department’s workforce, but also left civil rights investigation and enforcement offices at half their previous capacity, cut the Federal Student Aid office by over 450 employees, and slashed 90% of the Institute of Education Sciences staff. 

    These decisions would likely impede key functions of the department, including ensuring all students’ civil rights are protected, administering federal loans and overseeing lenders and FAFSA, and tracking students’ educational outcomes and the condition of education in the nation, the Democratic senators told Rocque.

    Rocque, who joined the Education Department’s Office of Inspector General as deputy inspector general in December 2023, became acting director in January.

    As with many other issues dividing lawmakers today, Democrats and Republicans have been starkly divided over the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate the department altogether. This makes attaining a Senate supermajority of 60 votes — which is required to officially shut the department — unlikely. 

    House Democrats introduced a resolution on March 21 calling for transparency and information from the administration, including unredacted copies of all federal documents referring to the department’s closure and information on workforce reduction decisions.

    About a week after the massive reduction in force on March 11, Democrat lawmakers from both the House and Senate wrote the department demanding information on the layoffs, saying that halving its workforce could impact the agency’s ability to perform vital functions required by law.

    Meanwhile, Republicans in some states have taken the opportunity to ask the administration for more leeway in their education spending. 

    On March 25, for example, Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters sent a letter to the Education Department requesting a waiver to receive a block grant for all funds allocated to his state under the Every Student Succeeds Act. Such a consolidated block grant would “significantly enhance local flexibility” so “schools will be able to address their unique needs and priorities,” Walters wrote.

    The block grant would be used to “expand educational choices,” including attendance at private schools, and would loosen federal oversight of education spending requirements.

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  • Trump administration cancels $400M of Columbia’s grants and contracts amid antisemitism probe

    Trump administration cancels $400M of Columbia’s grants and contracts amid antisemitism probe

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    Four federal agencies announced Friday they are immediately canceling $400 million of grants and contracts to Columbia University over what they described as the Ivy League institution’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” 

    The cancellation of the grants and contracts comes just four days after the Trump administration’s newly created Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced a probe into Columbia. 

    The four agencies — the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Education and U.S. General Services Administration — said more cancellations will follow. The university has over $5 billion in federal grant commitments, according to the announcement. 

    “Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding,” U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a Friday statement. “For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”

    A Columbia spokesperson said Friday that officials are reviewing the announcement and plan to work with the federal government to restore the funding. 

    “We take Columbia’s legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and are committed to combatting antisemitism and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff,” the spokesperson said.

    The four agencies threatened to take similar actions against other colleges. 

     “The decisive action by the DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA to cancel Columbia’s grants and contracts serves as a notice to every school and university that receives federal dollars that this Administration will use all the tools at its disposal to protect Jewish students and end anti-Semitism on college campuses,” they said in Friday’s announcement. 

     The antisemitism task force is already poised to review several other high-profile colleges. Last week, the Justice Department said the group would visit 10 college campuses, including Columbia, where antisemitic incidents have been reported since October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. 

     The other campuses are George Washington University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Northwestern University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Berkeley, University of Minnesota and University of Southern California. 

    Even more recently, the task force on Wednesday announced a probe into the University of California over allegations that it discriminated against employees by not doing enough to prevent an antisemitic and hostile work environment. 

    Groups raise concerns over free speech

    Columbia has drawn Republican policymakers’ ire for months over the way university administrators have responded to pro-Palestinian protests on its campus. Protesters erected an encampment on the university’s lawn in April, sparking similar demonstrations nationwide that led to hundreds of student arrests. 

    This past fall, many colleges tightened their protest rules to deter encampments. Since then, Columbia and other high-profile institutions largely haven’t seen the same long-running encampments that rocked their campuses last spring, though protesters have held sit-ins and other demonstrations. 

    Columbia itself has made several policy changes — including some that have attracted criticism from free speech scholars. 

    The university’s Office of Institutional Equity — a newly created committee — has recently been bringing disciplinary cases against students who have criticized Israel, the Associated Press reported earlier this week. 

    “Based on how these cases have proceeded, the university now appears to be responding to governmental pressure to suppress and chill protected speech,” Amy Greer, an attorney advising the students under review, told AP. 

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  • James Madison psychology professor cleared of wrongdoing after extensive probe into classroom comments

    James Madison psychology professor cleared of wrongdoing after extensive probe into classroom comments

    As anyone who has taken a psychology course likely knows, discussing parts of human psychology can inevitably lead to some uncomfortable places. Whether it’s discussing sensitive topics like the psychology of psychopathic violence, the ethics of human experimentation, or the sex-based roots of the concept of “hysteria,” psychology courses are often unavoidably provocative. That is especially so for doctoral courses. 

    For Gregg Henriques, a faculty member in James Madison University’s Clinical and School Psychology Doctoral program, these sorts of uncomfortable topics were a fundamental part of understanding the full range of human psychology. Henriques had taught in the program for more than 20 years, where he established his bona fides as a passionate, if colorful, professor.

    That career longevity is part of the reason why Henriques was shocked to learn that a Title IX complaint had been filed against him by an anonymous student in April 2023. The complaint alleged that over the course of three classes and four months in early 2022, Henriques made two dozen harassing comments that created a hostile environment in his doctoral courses. 

    Among the objectionable comments were phrases like “emotions are like orgasms,” which was meant to analogize the experience of human emotion to the sexual response cycle, and “pinky dick” as a way of referring to inferiority complexes and overcompensation in a class on psychodynamic theory. Henriques also landed in hot water  for acknowledging his own fundamental human desire to have sex during a lecture on Sigmund Freud. 

    Yes, Henriques often had a colorful way of describing psychological concepts. But he only used such phrases to convey concepts to his students in memorable ways. Faculty members enjoy wide protections regarding their pedagogical speech in the classroom because the First Amendment protects speech “related to scholarship or teaching.” That’s especially so when they approach difficult or controversial issues in the classroom, since even offensive speech that is “germane to the classroom subject matter” — including Henriques’s provocative descriptions of psychological concepts here — is protected.

    We live in an age where heterodoxy is often called ‘harm’ and where every word out of a professor’s mouth is uttered beneath the brooding and Orwellian omnipresence of the Title IX Office. 

    Despite Henriques’ stellar reputation established over decades of teaching, James Madison plowed forward with the investigation. Henriques reached out to FIRE’s Faculty Legal Defense Fund, which provides faculty members at public universities with experienced First Amendment attorneys, free of charge. FLDF quickly set Henriques up with Justin Dillon, an accomplished attorney who helped Henriques navigate the investigatory process. 

    Over the course of nearly a year, JMU called Henriques into several meetings with investigators about the complaint. With the help of his FLDF attorney, Henriques was eventually cleared of all wrongdoing in January 2024, as the university determined that his comments were pedagogically relevant and did not constitute sexual harassment. 

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    “I owe Justin and FIRE a tremendous debt of gratitude,” Henriques said. “As soon as he took the case, he homed in on the key issues, grasped the logic of why I taught the way I did and saw its value and legitimacy, and started to effectively game plan our approach. He was a tremendous help in navigating the system, understanding the procedures, and ensuring my rights were protected.”

    “It’s hard to overstate the difference that I have seen the FLDF make in the lives of terrific professors like Gregg Henriques,” Dillon said. “We live in an age where heterodoxy is often called ‘harm’ and where every word out of a professor’s mouth is uttered beneath the brooding and Orwellian omnipresence of the Title IX Office. The FLDF helps keep the world safe for ideas, and I am so honored to be a part of it.”

    With his pedagogical rights vindicated, Henriques is now back in the classroom, able to teach knowing that FLDF and FIRE have his back. But he is just one of the hundreds of scholars punished for their speech. 

    If you are a public university or college professor facing investigations or punishment for your speech, contact the Faculty Legal Defense Fund: Submit a case or call the 24-hour hotline at 254-500-FLDF (3533).

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