Updated: January 24, 2025, at 3:46 p.m.
GW reached a resolution agreement last week with the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, concluding yearslong investigations into a pair of Title VI complaints alleging anti-Palestinian discrimination and antisemitism at the University, a pro-Palestinian legal group claimed Thursday.
Palestine Legal said in a release that the Office for Civil Rights on Jan. 17 found a pro-Israel advocacy group’s January 2023 complaint alleging antisemitism in a psychology course “unsubstantial.” The office also reportedly ruled that the University “may have treated [a pro-Palestine student] differently on the basis of shared ancestry” in response to a separate complaint filed by Palestine Legal in February 2023 that claimed years of anti-Palestinian discrimination against students, according to the release.
The Office for Civil Rights had been investigating the complaints since April and May 2023, respectively. Both investigations against GW are still listed as active on the department’s website, and the agreement isn’t available on the Office for Civil Rights’ resolution database.
University spokesperson Julia Metjian said the University entered a voluntary resolution agreement with the Office for Civil Rights on Jan. 16 and that the office’s investigations concluded without finding that GW had violated Title VI law. Metjian said as part of the agreement, the University committed to evaluating policies to ensure they articulate standards and procedures regarding demonstrations and discrimination and expand the maintenance of complaint records relating to national origin.
“The agreement builds on GW’s substantial ongoing efforts to uphold commitments under Title VI and reflects GW’s desire to continue strengthening fair treatment of all members of the University community,” Metjian said in an email.
Metjian also said the University will implement additional training for faculty, staff and students on discrimination and conduct a survey to measure the perceived level of discrimination and harassment based on national origin at the University as part of the agreement. She said GW also agreed to correct the records regarding actions taken involving “several” students.Â
“The university remains committed to addressing and combating antisemitism, Islamophobia, and discrimination and harassment in all forms. GW’s strengths continue to lie in our diversity, empathy, engagement, and shared commitment to learning and growth,” Metjian said in an email.
The Office for Civil Rights did not immediately return a request for comment.Â
“This resolution agreement is a positive step toward ending that harmful and unlawful practice and creating an educational environment in which all are welcome and political expression is respected,” Palestine Legal Staff Attorney Dylan Saba said in the release.
Palestine Legal alleged that GW opted to enter into a resolution agreement with the Office for Civil Rights instead of completing the investigation, which could have resulted in GW losing federal funding if the office determined that the University violated federal civil rights law. Palestine Legal did not immediately return a request for comment.
As part of the resolution, GW must ensure all of its policies and procedures define what constitutes discrimination under Title VI and clarify that discrimination against “shared Palestinian, Arab, South Asian and/or Muslim, and Jewish or Israeli ancestry and/or the association with these national origins/ancestries” is included, the release claims.Â
The University must also revise policies and procedures for on-campus protests and other forms of expression to provide “safeguards for non-discriminatory application” and enforcement without regard to the race or national origin of protesters or their cause, according to Palestine Legal. The group claimed that the Office for Civil Rights asked officials to conduct and share a “climate survey” that will “define national origin as including shared Palestinian, Arab, South Asian, and/or Muslim, and Jewish or Israeli ancestry and/or the association with these national origins.”
The agreement also requires GW to provide nondiscrimination training for students and employees and additional training for staff members of Conflict Education & Student Accountability to ensure that charges are consistent with Title VI, according to the release.
The release states that GW also declined to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s working definition of antisemitism, which has been disputed due to concerns the framework could be used to improperly prohibit rhetoric critical of the state of Israel by characterizing critiques of the Israeli government as antisemitic.
StandWithUs, the pro-Israel advocacy group, had urged for its adoption in the group’s complaint, and more than 1,000 people signed a petition in November 2021 calling on GW to back the definition after a Torah scroll was vandalized in Tau Kappa Epsilon’s on-campus house. Â
In StandWithUs’ January 2023 complaint, the group accused assistant professor of clinical psychology Lara Sheehi of creating a “hostile environment” for Jewish and Israeli students in her Diversity I course. The complaint alleged that faculty and administrators “retaliated” with “disciplinary proceedings” against students who raised concerns about Sheehi’s conduct, a guest speaker and course materials that addressed the Israel-Palestine conflict.
GW hired Crowell & Moring law firm to conduct a third-party investigation into the Title VI complaint a month before the Office for Civil Rights launched its investigation. The law firm found “no evidence” of discriminatory conduct, and more than 2,000 people signed statements in support of the professor at the time. Sheehi left GW to teach at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in Qatar nine months into the Office for Civil Rights’ investigation. Â
In its February 2023 complaint, Palestine Legal accused the University of discriminating against Palestinian students by denying them access to mental health services in 2021, falsely accusing Students for Justine in Palestine and its president of committing crimes and holding “months-long” disciplinary hearings for conduct violations that other students admitted to. The advocacy group claimed at the time that the Office for Civil Rights’ investigation of this complaint was its first public investigation of anti-Palestinian racism.Â
Palestine Legal also reiterated claims in its Thursday release that GW agreed to expunge charges brought against Palestine Legal client and pro-Palestinian student organizer Lance Lokas. The former president of GW’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine faced disciplinary misconduct charges in November 2022 for allegedly damaging benches outside the GW Hillel building as part of a postering campaign. Officials allegedly cleared SJP and Lokas of the charges the next month.Â
Lokas also said last February that officials placed him on disciplinary probation in November 2023 and removed him from SJP leadership. He claimed officials charged him with noncompliance and a student conduct outcome violation. Palestine Legal in April 2024 said GW dropped all charges against him.Â
“I am glad to see GW have to take some accountability for its racist repression against student organizing for Palestine,” Lokas said in the release.Â
Lokas did not immediately return a request for comment.Â
Under President Donald Trump, the Office for Civil Rights faces uncertainty as Trump threatens to dismantle the Department of Education. Trump’s administration said they’d task the office with investigating more “anti-white” civil rights violations. Experts have warned that the office could become underfunded and understaffed, which would delay individual investigations despite an influx in complaints.Â
Fiona Riley contributed reporting.
This article was updated to include the following:
This article was updated to include comment from University spokesperson Julia Metjian.