Rutgers Reviews Policies After 400 Complaints Of Ethnic Harassment On Campus

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — An investigation by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) determined Rutgers University failed to effectively investigate harassment/hostile environment complaints last year from students of both Israeli and Palestinian descent.

The DOE reached their decision Jan. 2, in this public letter they sent Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway.

In 2023 and 2024, approximately 400 Rutgers students filed complaints of on-campus ethnic harassment. The complaints were filed after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, and subsequent pro-Palestine student tent camp that lasted for four days last April on Voorhees Mall.

Rutgers agreed to settle with the U.S. DOE to resolve the complaints. The settlement is not financial, but Rutgers did agree to review policies on how it handles such complaints, and improve training to respond.

“Rutgers has reached a voluntary agreement with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights to continue to take steps to clarify, communicate, and review its policies and procedures related to discrimination and harassment, especially around national origin and shared ancestry,” Rutgers spokeswoman Dory Devlin told NJ.com.

The Office for Civil Rights within the U.S. DOE said it received "hundreds" of complaints from Rutgers students of Muslim, Jewish, Israeli, Palestinian descent, and more.

NJ.com reported that in the months after Oct. 2023, a total of 400 reports of ethnic harassment were made at Rutgers: 293 came from students of Jewish ancestry/Israeli national origin, and 147 reports came from students with Palestinian, Arab, South Asian and/or Muslim ancestry.

The Jan. 2 DOE report specified some of the incidents that happened on the Rutgers campus after Oct. 7, 2023:

• Eggs were thrown at members of AEPi, which is the Jewish fraternity at Rutgers. Also, the Bildner Center for Jewish Studies was egged.
• Someone commented "Die Jews Die" on a University Hillel social media post about Israel after Oct. 7.
• A Rutgers New Brunswick student wearing a sweatshirt with the Israeli flag on it at a University Progressive Club student group meeting was told the club was "a Zionist-free space."
• At Rutgers Camden, there were allegations a swastika was drawn on a student’s dorm room door and a mezuzah was defaced.
• During a University town hall meeting with Rutgers President Holloway on April 4, 2024, protesters, including Students for Justice in Palestine students, chanted, “We don’t want two states, we want ’48,” “Globalize the intifada,” and “Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want Zionists here,” among other chants. Jewish students felt unsafe, so they left the town hall. The Jewish students said such chants were ethnic harassment.
• A Palestinian student at Rutgers Newark said someone intentionally hit her with their car mirror while leaving a campus parking lot. The Palestinian student had previously filed a complaint with the university alleging the same person contemplated doxxing her.