On March 10, 2025, the Department of Education (ED) announced that it sent letters to 60 colleges and universities “warning them of potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities.” The press release is here.
Remember that during the Biden administration a list of all of ED’s open investigations were searchable and viewable, updated every Tuesday. Because of enhanced public interest in Title VI investigations, ED also created a separate webpage that listed the open Title VI investigations. Both pages were last updated January 14, 2025.
GRS compared the January 14 list of open investigations to the March 10 list of institutions that received letters from ED, and although there was overlap, there were also differences:
- The January 14 list included 64 K-12 schools and districts and 77 colleges and universities.
- The March 10 letters were sent to 60 institutions of higher education.
- The March 10 letters were sent to 19 institutions that were not part of the January 14 list of schools with open Title VI investigations, and the other 41 were already on the January 14 list.
- Thirteen schools identified on January 14 were not part of the March 10 list. It is unclear at this time whether those schools’ investigations are ongoing or resolved.
Institutions of higher education should expect this administration’s interest in Title VI and antisemitism concerns on their campuses to continue, consistent with executive communications relating to the Executive Order “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism” issued January 29. Last week ED and three other departments jointly announced the cancellation of grants and contracts to Columbia University worth $400 million and tying those cancelations to alleged violations of Title VI. No new OCR resolutions agreements have been announced since inauguration day, but ED frequently releases press releases about its activities, which can be found in the online newsroom.
Recent releases include information about newly-launched investigations, establishing a new public portal for people to report “discrimination based on race and sex in publicly funded K-12 schools,” and updates on the Department’s staffing. At this time the Trump administration has not taken any action to rescind or supplement the Title VI guidance published in 2023 and 2024 by the Biden administration, including the May 2024 significant guidance.
What should schools do now?
Continue to follow ED’s Title VI guidance and the best practices takeaways from the various resolution agreements issued the past few years, including:
- Review your policies for clarity, completeness, and compliance—not only your nondiscrimination policies and procedures but also those regarding protests, demonstrations, and posting. Do they describe the standard used to assess a hostile environment, and the institution’s obligation to make that assessment? Does the policy include a mechanism to address prohibited conduct that isn’t targeting a particular individual, or where there is not a known or identifiable respondent?
- Training and awareness. Ensure your campus community has notice that Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin, and what that means—particularly that national origin includes shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics. Provide examples in trainings for students and employees so they understand the type of conduct covered by your nondiscrimination policy.
- Schools should designate an employee or office to own Title VI compliance, which includes ensuring that the policy is followed and used consistently. Institutions are responsible for understanding reports and complaints in the aggregate and identifying systemic issues; to fulfill this obligation, their reporting and recordkeeping practices must include some sort of centralization or internal oversight.
Grand River Solutions offers training, investigations, consulting, interim Title VI Coordinators, and other services to support institutions in addressing Title VI concerns on campus. A list of upcoming trainings can be found here. For additional information on specific services, you may also reach us here.