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The Baltimore private school’s records don’t show that it considered whether 99 reported instances of bias since Oct. 7 made a hostile environment, per the U.S. Education Department.
By: JNS Staff
Johns Hopkins commits to doing a better job of addressing complaints of bias, based on “shared ancestry,” under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But the nearly 150-year-old, highly ranked private research school in Baltimore admits no wrongdoing with 99 reported incidents of discrimination, of which it has no records that it weighed whether they created a hostile environment, since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
That’s according to a new voluntary agreement that the school inked with the U.S. Department of Education. Although it has done so in previous instances, the Biden administration didn’t outline in a press release, in the agreement or in its letter to Ronald Daniels, the Hopkins president, how many of the 99 incidents were alleged Jew-hatred and how many were complaints about bias against Arabs.
JNS sought comment from Johns Hopkins University about whether it believes it erred in its efforts to protect its Jewish community and about how many of the 99 reported complaints were about anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli bias.
Hopkins told JNS, in a statement attributed to a “university spokesperson,” that it is “deeply committed to fostering a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for all members of our community.”
“Discrimination of any kind, including antisemitism and anti-Arab bias, is not only at odds with university policy but is also antithetical to our most fundamental values,” the university spokesperson told JNS.
The spokesperson added that Hopkins “entered into a voluntary resolution agreement” with the Education Department “that builds upon and reinforces existing training and antidiscrimination efforts that are already underway. We will fully comply with the agreement.”
The spokesperson added that Hopkins is “pleased” that the federal government’s statement recognized the school’s “proactive responsiveness to reported incidents that could contribute to a hostile environment for students based on national origin as well as the university’s comprehensive nondiscrimination policies.”
The spokesperson added that “academic freedom and the right to free expression—including the right to protest and demonstration—are fundamental to our mission as a university” and that “we have also been clear that acts of hate, threats and discrimination violate university policy and the student code of conduct, and we remain committed to ensuring that all members of our community have the resources they need to feel safe and welcome on our campuses.”
‘Replete’ with reported Jew-hatred
“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,” stated Catherine Lhamon, the assistant secretary for civil rights, at the Education Department.
Among the incidents of alleged anti-Arab bias that the U.S. department cited were “multiple” reports that professors “directed stereotyped slurs toward Arab and Palestinian people, including in a communication one professor sent directly to his students following Oct. 7, 2023, stating, ‘Those brutal Arabs will, God willing, pay a price like never before.’”
“In another report, a student was asked to remove his keffiyeh while working on campus because it could be interpreted as a ‘political statement,’” the federal government said.
The university’s records “are replete with reports that Jewish students and university community members were subjected to stereotypes directed at them regarding their shared ancestry,” per the department. That included “Jewish Zionists” being called “‘ugly’ Halloween monsters, discussions about “a reductive stereotype about Jewish noses” and a sign at a protest on campus “depicting a swastika with the threat, ‘Go Hamas, from the river to the sea, finish the job.’”
“The university records produced to date do not reflect that the university assessed whether these incidents created or contributed to a hostile environment such that they impacted students’ access to equal education,” the department stated.
Hopkins also used the wrong or inconsistent standard in deciding whether incidents created a hostile environment, per the department. “In one reported incident, a student posted numerous derogatory remarks on social media regarding Israel, including comments making light of the Hamas attacks,” it stated. “The university closed the complaint because there was no direct threat, which is not an element of the hostile environment analysis under Title VI.”
“This agreement does not constitute an admission of liability, non-compliance or wrongdoing by the university,” the agreement states.
Hopkins commits to training its staff on responding to reports of discrimination and to detail such reports in the previous and the coming academic years to the Education Department.
(JNS.org)
