Lafayette College closes Department of Education investigation into alleged anti-Semitism

A woman walks across the campus of Lafayette College in Easton on Monday. ////// NEWS – CHRIS KNIGHT/ SPECIAL FOR THE MORNING CALL – Recorded on 03/22/16 SPECIAL FOR THE MORNING CALL

Lafayette College has settled a Department of Education investigation into an alleged anti-Semitic incident on its campus.

In an email sent to students, staff and faculty on Thursday, President Nicole Hurd wrote that the college has initiated a “voluntary process” to resolve the complaint. The resolution does not require the college to admit liability or wrongdoing, but the school will take several steps to address the complaint, including reviewing its discrimination-related policies and procedures, training staff who investigate internal discrimination complaints and reviewing complaints from the last academic year.

“We take these matters extremely seriously and will fully comply with these obligations consistent with our close partnership with (the Office for Civil Rights) throughout its investigation,” Hurd wrote in the campus-wide email.

Scott Morse, a spokesman for Lafayette College, said there was no further comment from the college on the resolution other than Hurd’s email.

The U.S. Department of Education announced an investigation into Lafayette and six other colleges in November.

The ministry said the investigations were part of its efforts to “aggressively address the worrying nationwide increase in reports of anti-Semitism, anti-Islam, anti-Arab and other forms of discrimination and harassment on university campuses and in elementary and secondary schools since the October 7 Israel-Hamas conflict.”

According to a November email from Hurd, the Lafayette investigation stemmed from an unidentified individual who alleged that the college discriminated against students of Jewish descent by failing to respond to an incident of harassment. Specifically, the individual alleged that someone held up a sign with an anti-Semitic message during a demonstration on Oct. 25.

Hurd said in an email that the incident was promptly reviewed by the school’s student life team and would be addressed as part of the school’s “bias incident accountability process.”

Since November, the Department of Education has expanded its open-ended Title VI common ancestry investigations to 146 school districts and colleges across the U.S., according to its website. Locally, the Department of Education also opened an investigation into Muhlenberg College in January and Lehigh University in April.

The Education Ministry declined to comment on Thursday.

Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at [email protected].