Dive Temporary:
- School members of Columbia College and Columbia-affiliated Barnard School obtained textual content messages from the U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee asking them to finish a survey inquiring about whether or not they’re Jewish or Israeli, a number of information shops reported April 23.
- Based on a screenshot of a message posted by CNN, EEOC stated responses to the survey could be stored confidential “to the extent allowed by legislation.” The screenshot stated EEOC was conducting an inquiry into Barnard School and that, ought to the company discover that the school violated legal guidelines enforced by EEOC, a few of the data of respondents could also be disclosed.
- In an e-mail to HR Dive, EEOC declined to verify that it had despatched the messages. Columbia, in a separate e-mail, declined to verify that workers had obtained messages from EEOC.
Dive Perception:
Federal officers have scrutinized Columbia following a sequence of on-campus protests in 2024. In August of that yr, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and former chairwoman of the Home Committee on Training and the Workforce, issued a number of subpoenas to Columbia leaders as a part of an investigation into antisemitism on the college and whether or not the protests had created a hostile surroundings in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Final month, EEOC Performing Chair Andrea Lucas issued an announcement wherein she pledged to carry universities and faculties accountable for office antisemitism. Lucas’ assertion didn’t title any particular establishments, however it did cite “disruptive and violent protests in violation of campus insurance policies” for instance of extreme or pervasive antisemitic conduct that might violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
“Underneath the guise of selling free speech, many universities have truly turn into a haven for antisemitic conduct, typically in violation of the schools’ personal time, place, and method insurance policies, in addition to civil rights legislation,” Lucas stated within the March 5 assertion.
EEOC didn’t affirm whether or not messages despatched to Columbia and Barnard college had been a part of an ongoing investigation into both establishment. “Per federal legislation, we can not touch upon investigations, nor can we affirm or deny the existence of an investigation,” the company stated.
Equally, Columbia declined to touch upon a pending investigation, however a college official stated Columbia had informed employees that it gave “affected workers discover that the College was required to offer sure data in compliance with a subpoena. The College didn’t present the knowledge voluntarily.”
Columbia didn’t reply to a request for touch upon whether or not it had suggested employees not to answer EEOC’s messages.
Information of the inquiry drew criticism from one in all EEOC’s administrative judges, Karen Ortiz, who despatched an all-staff e-mail directed to EEOC Performing Chair Andrea Lucas.
Ortiz wrote that Lucas ought to think about resigning; in an interview with HR Dive, she stated the e-mail was in response to information of the textual content messages and different current company actions, together with its resolution to abandon gender-identity discrimination litigation and halting some claims processing. She stated the survey arguably was not inside Lucas’ authority to ship and might be understood as an try and intimidate Columbia and Barnard.
“It’s a whole overreach,” Ortiz stated of the survey.