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( JTA ) — The U.S. Department of Education announced it had resolved nine antisemitism- and Islamophobia-related civil rights complaints made against five campuses inside the University of California system on Friday, including some involving a prominent pro-Palestinian encampment in Los Angeles that had descended into violence in the spring.
The sweeping resolution comes in the final weeks of President Biden’s term, and as President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to eliminate the department altogether , which could potentially move antisemitism investigations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to the Justice Department.
The Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, which handles Title VI cases, wrote in an open letter to Michael Drake, president of the UC system, that it had “identified compliance concerns that the Universities appear not to have responded promptly or effectively” to allegations of harassment. In addition, OCR said, three of the schools “appear to have engaged in different treatment of students based on actual or perceived national origin.”