Brown University under investigation by Dept of Education over alleged discrimination against Jewish students

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is opening an investigation into Brown University over alleged discrimination against Jewish students. 

Conservative-leaning Campus Reform Editor-in-Chief Dr. Zachary Marschall recently filed a complaint with the government agency. The filing claimed that "pro-Israel students are targeted and threatened" on the Ivy League campus.

The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights responded to Marschall and notified him it would open an investigation into complaints filed against the school.

A Brown University spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights informed the University on Jan. 9 that it is investigating a complaint alleging discrimination on the basis of national origin in regard to "incidents of harassment" in Fall 2023. 

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The U.S Department of Education Office of Civil Rights has opened an investigation into Brown University over the alleged discrimination of Jewish students.  (by Rick Friedman/Corbis/Robert Knopes/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

"Our understanding from media reports is that the complaint originates from beyond Brown’s campus and specifically from an editor of the online publication Campus Reform. The letter characterizes the investigation as fact-finding, requests information from Brown and states clearly that ‘opening the complaint for investigation in no way implies that OCR has made a determination on the merits of the complaint,’" the spokesperson said. 

"Amid the anxiety, tension, debate and fear prompted by the devastating events in the Middle East, Brown’s primary focus has been, and will continue to be, on supporting the needs and safety of our students, faculty and staff who are Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, Palestinian, have ties to the region, and are feeling impacted by current events," the spokesperson continued. "We remain resolved in our cross-campus efforts to ensure a community where all individuals feel safe and valued and where no instance of antisemitism, Islamophobia or bias based on religious, cultural or ethnic differences is tolerated. We will provide additional details directly in our response to OCR."

An Education Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "The Department does not comment further on pending investigations. For more information about how OCR processes investigations, please see OCR’s Case Processing Manual."

The Department also referred to a list of pending Title VI Shared Ancestry Investigations, which can be found here. 

The investigation comes after several instances at Brown that garnered media attention and criticism from faculty and staff. 

On October 10, Brown University’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter released a statement that suggested Israel and its allies are "unequivocally responsible" for all suffering and death caused by the ongoing conflict in Gaza. That was three days after the brutal Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel that slaughtered 1,200 people and took hundreds of hostages.

The chapter also criticized Brown University President Christina Paxson for holding "unequivocally privileged Israeli interests and initiatives" and urged the school to end its "complicity In the Israeli apartheid regime."

During a recent campus vigil hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine, one student was heard saying Palestinians would die "for justice" and to "return to our land."

"Glory to our martyrs from the river to the sea... Palestine is the hope of the world," the student added.

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People hold up signs and protest following a vigil held on the grounds of Brown University, after three students of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded in Vermont, at the school's main green in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. November 27, 2023. (REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi)

In December, Providence Police Department and Brown Department of Public Safety officers arrested and booked 41 students from the Brown Divest Coalition who occupied University Hall on Tuesday afternoon and demanded the school divest from weapons manufacturers amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The arrests occurred one month after 20 members of Jews for Ceasefire Now were charged with trespassing after staging a sit-in at University Hall, calling for divestment and a ceasefire.

A month earlier, three college students of Palestinian descent were shot in Vermont. One of the students attended Brown and was left paraplegic. 

Fox News’ Stepheny Price contributed to this report. 

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