On Jan. 7 2024, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the United States Department of Education released a letter addressed to President Ronald J. Daniels, sharing the findings of its nearly year-long Title VI investigation into the University. The investigation was launched in February 2024 in response to allegations that the University failed to respond to harassment of Jewish students during the 2023–24 school year.
Office of Civil Rights Resolution
The OCR concluded that the documentation provided by the University regarding this matter “raise a compliance concern” with the University’s Title VI obligation to prevent a hostile environment based on shared ancestry. These records consisted of 99 reports and complaints of alleged harassment or discrimination based on shared ancestry — in the form of social media posts, vandalism, protests and posters — made between October 2023 and May 2024 to the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE).
The OCR stated that the records provided by the University are “replete” with reports that Jewish students have experienced distress from stereotypes and social media posts. They added that the records “generally do not reflect University consideration of whether these and other incidents individually or cumulatively created a hostile environment for Jewish students.”
One student reported that her photo and phone number was put on a Baltimore escort site with the word “Jewess cass.” Several students filed complaints about SideChat posts, including one post that had “an infographic [sic] linking an alleged organized effort by Zionists/Israel to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.”
Another report was filed by several students following a solidarity protest for Palestine in October 2023, including one student reporting the speaker stated “we see you Jews here and we aren’t scared.” There is no evidence of action taken by the University. Several students and parents also filed OIE complaints during the Palestine Solidarity Encampment, which included objections to the protesters’ chants, such as “There is only one solution: Intifada Revolution,” “Smash Zionism” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The OCR also described that, despite multiple reports that University professors directed stereotypic slurs toward Arab and Palestinian people, the University did not consider whether these comments impeded students’ equal access to education.
One anonymous complaint was filed against a professor, who called Palestinians “barbaric animals w [sic] no concern for life” and said it was “Time to reclaim Gaza” on his social media. The professor was placed on leave and found to have created a hostile environment. In another complaint, a professor was reported for his social media posts in which he stated ““and I see those @MIT faculty mis-use the term ‘Islamophobia’; they should listen to Sam Harris’s recent podcast where he explains that ‘it’s a word invented by fascists and used by cowards to manipulate morons.’” OIE determined the content did not violate policies and requested that the Dean of the professor’s program spoke to him.
OIE also received a complaint regarding a message sent by a professor to his class where he stated “those brutal Arabs will, God willing, pay a price like never before” for the attacks of October 7th. The professor later apologized for his comments.
The report also stated that several students and parents filed OIE complaints during the Palestine Solidarity Encampment, which included objections to the protesters’ chants , such as “There is only one solution: Intifada Revolution,” and “Smash Zionism.”
According to the report, University did engage in several proactive efforts to foster an inclusive environment and address the needs of the community, including the formation of a working group that met regularly immediately after Oct. 7, University-wide messages from the President and leadership providing affiliates with supportive resources and regular communication with student groups, including Hopkins Hillel, Muslim student organizations and the Student Government Association.
The report then stated that the University failed to apply or inconsistently applied the correct legal standards to determine whether an incident contributed to fostering a hostile environment. The report writes that the University closed complaints that social media posts contributed to a hostile environment because there was no direct threat to students or staff — which is not an element of the legal definition of hostile environment — but also did not take action following incidents directly targeting students and staff.
“In these reports, students and/or staff were directly targeted, but the University nonetheless closed the complaint on the ground that it could not identify the respondent or because the reporting party did not respond to outreach, even though it had sufficient information to identify the respondents in each,” the OCR wrote.
Voluntary Resolution Agreement signed by the University
Title VI is a federal statute that holds that no person on the basis of race, color or national origin “be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under” any federally funded program or activity, and prohibits discrimination or harassment against students for actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, such as Jewish or Arab descent. As a recipient of federal funding, Hopkins is legally obligated to be in compliance with all applicable federal statutes, including Title VI.
In order for a recipient, like Hopkins, to be found in violation of Title VI, OCR holds that a hostile environment must be present, the recipient must have had actual or constructive notice of the environment and thereafter failed to take prompt and effective action.
“In other words, if the recipient could have found out about the harassment had it made a proper inquiry, and if the recipient should have made such an inquiry, knowledge of the harassment will be imputed to the recipient,” the report stated.
The University signed a voluntary resolution agreement with the Office of Civil Rights to take specific actions, including training for staff and students, to address discrimination and harassment based on race, color, national origin and shared ancestry, and ethnic characteristics. The agreement does not indicate an admission of liability, wrongdoing or violation of Title VI by the University.
Hopkins will also review its response to each report of discrimination or harassment on the basis of shared ancestry received on or after Oct. 7th, 2023 and determine whether the alleged incident created a hostile environment, including incidents off-campus or on social media.
In an email to The News-Letter, a University spokesperson stated the OCR resolution and voluntary agreement recognized the University’s “proactive responsiveness” to the reported incidents and that the OCR did not find the University in violation of Title IX.
By signing the voluntary resolution agreement, the spokesperson described that the University will build upon its existing training and antidiscrimination efforts, including developing annual training for staff investigating complaints, trainings for all staff and students, and a conducting a climate assessment.
“We will fully comply with the agreement,“ the spokesperson stated. “Discrimination of any kind, including anti-Semitism and anti-Arab bias, is at odds with university policy and our most fundamental values.”
SideChat
One social media platform mentioned several times by name in the OCR’s report was SideChat. SideChat is an anonymous app launched in 2022 that provides campus-specific channels for posts and discussion, and is not affiliated or managed by universities. Hopkins faculty, students and staff can sign up for the Hopkins-specific channel on SideChat using their university email and leave comments and post anonymously. Following the attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and the subsequent war, the app became the site of heated rhetoric about the conflict and affected groups.
According to the report, several incidents involving SideChat posts were reported to the OIE between October 2023 and May 2024. OIE informed multiple students who made complaints that they were unable to launch a formal investigation into these posts because SideChat is anonymous, and OIE cannot retrieve their identity from the platform. Documentation referenced in the report also stated that in meetings between the University President and a student body representative, President Daniels stated that if the student body wanted SideChat to remain, it is an anonymous platform that the University cannot police.
The community guidelines on SideChat state that content promoting discrimination against or hate toward groups of people are not permitted. Posts about students are also not allowed, including the usage of student names, posts of student photos or doxxing — defined as revealing private or identifiable information about students.
“We don’t allow personal information — so no names, phone numbers, addresses or social media handles,” the guidelines state. “This also means no nicknames, in-depth descriptions, or other information that could potentially be used to identify a community member.”
In one incident included in the report, a student provided documentation to OIE of a derogatory post showing her unique first name and other posts making derogatory statements referring to her — appearing to be in violation of SideChat’s moderating policy.
According to SideChat, the app has a trained moderation team of 30 moderators, working 24/7 to enforce the community guidelines for posts. However, concerns have been raised about hate proliferating on SideChat by other universities.
In an April 17th, 2024 hearing with the House Committee on Education and Workforce, then Columbia University President Minouche Shafik said that “probably the most egregious cases that we've seen of antisemitism, Islamophobia, racist comments have been on social media on those anonymous channels.” Harvard University and Brown University have both asked for the platform to better moderate the content, pointing to the reports of harassment and hate speech, with Harvard escalating concerning content on the app directly to SideChat leadership.
According to the OCR, the University told OCR that it would pursue non-disciplinary measures to address concerns related to SideChat.
In response to a question by The News-Letter, a University spokesperson denied that Hopkins has taken steps to elevate problematic posts directly to SideChat and stated that Sidechat is a for-profit company unaffiliated with the University. The spokesperson described the steps taken by the University and student groups to promote respectful dialogue on campus and social platforms.
“The university has focused its efforts on ways to ensure a positive and respectful community on campus,“ the spokesperson stated. “After the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, Student Affairs staff at Johns Hopkins encouraged student leaders to remind their peers to use care on the platform. We were heartened that SGA in partnership with the Muslim Association and the Jewish Students Association sent a message encouraging respectful dialogue on Sidechat and other social channels.”
