As the Department for Education closes, Trump must protect Title VI inquiries

In its haste to eliminate federal waste, the Trump administration must be careful not to counteract its commitment to ensure the safety of Jewish students on college and university campuses. 

Recent cuts to the Department of Education (DoE) are threatening to impede the processes of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). The OCR is responsible for enforcing Title VI in all federally funded institutions, ensuring that universities that receive tax dollars fulfill their obligation to protect college students from discrimination. Chalkbeat reports that over half of the OCR’s twelve offices have been marked for closure, with field offices in major cities like New York and Chicago ‘entirely laid off.’ Despite assurances from department officials that these represent mere ‘strategic reductions,’ savage cuts like these will no doubt affect the department’s operations. 

A long awaited Republican dream came true on the 20th of March as President Trump issued an executive order to begin the shuttering of the DoE. Worryingly, though, the order appeared to make no mention of the OCR and its future. Before dissolving the Education Department, the administration must ensure that the OCR is transferred to a different department like the Department of Justice where they can finish ongoing investigations.

Now, more than ever, it is essential that the OCR can perform its work unobstructed. The department was already under pressure, even before antisemitism surged on college campuses following the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. The OCR received 219 Title VI-related complaints between October 2023 and February 2024 — up from 15 during the same period the previous year. It’s currently responsible for investigating approximately sixty universities for antisemitism, including prestigious Ivy Leagues like Harvard, Yale, and Columbia.  

The Trump administration has made many promises about addressing  antisemitism on campuses. In January, the president issued an executive order to empower federal agencies to act against antisemites on campus, including ordering the Department of Justice to “quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation.” The DOJ has already intervened to support a Title VI complaint against senior UCLA leadership due to their alleged complicity in a so-called “Palestine Solidarity Encampment” on campus. The DOJ issued a statement of interest to support Jewish students who allege that the encampment denied them access to campus facilities that had been “occupied” by the encampment based on their Jewish identity. Interventions like these are welcome evidence that the Trump administration takes antisemitism seriously.

Yet, if the OCR is dissolved along with the DoE, many outstanding legal cases with real chances of succeeding will be left in limbo. Brave Jewish students like those at UCLA who have gone through painstaking effort to hold their university administrations to account could be left without the resolutions they deserve. DOJ intervention is a welcome positive in most of these cases, but in order for real change to be enacted at the university level, campus administrations must be hit where it hurts. Only the Title VI claim process can inflict deep enough financial penalties to universities for them to finally stamp out antisemitism. Through Title VI, Columbia, a hotbed for antisemitic abuse since October 7th, has been forced to acquiesce to a number of reforms including empowering special security staff to arrest violent protestors and the banning of face coverings during protests. Only through the loss of federal funding has the Columbia administration been brought to heel. 

It would be irresponsible and counterproductive for the Trump administration to give with one hand and take with the other. As the OCR is essential to investigation and enforcement where campus antisemitism is concerned, it must not be allowed to become a casualty of government spending cuts. Title VI has proven to be the most effective tool that students and federal officials have to hold universities to account. President Trump must ensure that it does not get caught in the crossfire of the DoE closure.