The Department of Education’s (ED) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) opened another investigation into Harvard Tuesday after several students alleged the university failed to protect them from anti-Muslim harassment, according to the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MFLA).
Over a dozen anonymous students claim the university violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in a complaint filed by the MLFA, according to a press release. The students alleged they faced “racism and harassment” and had been “stalked” and “chased” across campus, according to a separate press release. (RELATED: Harvard Med School Professor And Neuroscientist Accused Of Major Research Misconduct)
“We applaud the DOE’s swift action,” Chelsea Glover, senior civil litigation staff attorney, said in a Tuesday press release. “When Harvard students were being harassed and doxxed by their peers and outside parties for months, Harvard officials brushed them to the side and instead met with prominent donors and alumni who encouraged the student harassment and doxxing. These students rightly felt abandoned. Harvard’s primary responsibility should be to its current students, not wealthy donors and alumni with personal agendas that harm students who support Palestinian freedom.”
People walk through Harvard Yard at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts on December 12, 2023. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
“As a Palestinian student at Harvard, the racism and harassment I have faced is shocking, terrifying, and outrageous,” said one of the students. “We have been chased, spat at, stalked, and hounded by doxxing trucks on campus and even at our families’ homes. On top of worrying about my family’s safety in Palestine, I’m living in fear of being attacked while walking to class. No student should have to live like this,” one of the anonymous students said in Jan. 29 MFLA press release.
ED’s OCR opened a separate investigation into the university in November looking into alleged antisemitism on campus, according to The Harvard Crimson. Several Harvard students also sued the university in January over alleged antisemitism on campus.
The university has been under fire for alleged antisemitism on campus, including pro-Palestinian protests using anti-Israel slogans and the mobbing of a Jewish student. Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned from the university following a plagiarism scandal and a congressional hearing on Dec. 5, where she refused to say if calling for the genocide of Jews violated the school’s code of conduct. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce opened an investigation into Harvard following the hearing.
Harvard did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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