by Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com

and

Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

On December 10, Pomona College reached a settlement agreement of a U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights Title VI investigation stemming from a complaint brought by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the Anti-Defamation League, Hillel International, and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP alleging Jewish students experienced antisemitism on campus.

The full agreement is viewable at brandeiscenter.com/legal-claims-against-pomona-college.

Claremont Colleges students protesting in April outside Honnold Mudd Library. Courier photo/Peter Weinberger

Title VI is a provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.

The federal Office for Civil Rights opened the Title VI investigation in August 2024 following the April 2024 Title VI complaint claiming Pomona students were “subjected to discrimination, harassment, and intimidation on the basis of their Jewish ancestry and ethnic identity.”

The introduction of the settlement agreement reads in part, “Pomona acknowledges that, for many Jewish students, Zionism is an integral part of their identity and their ethnic and ancestral heritage. These students have the right to openly express identification with Israel. The College will safeguard the abilities of these students, as well as all students, to participate in College-sponsored activities free from discrimination and harassment. The College also acknowledges that many Jewish students experience anti-Zionism as an attack on their Jewish identity, ethnicity, religion, and/or ancestry, which means these students experience anti-Zionism as antisemitism, and the College commits to protect them from such conduct that rises to the level of harassment and discrimination on this basis.”

Per the settlement, Pomona College agreed to:

• Consider using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and “contemporary examples” when investigating claims of antisemitism. The definition reads, “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” The IHRA also includes several “contemporary examples” as illustrations of antisemitism, including “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The IHRA’s definition and associated verbiage are viewable via download at holocaustremembrance.com/resources.
• Post a frequently asked questions page at pomona.edu to clarify its non-discrimination policy and discrimination and harassment investigation and response procedures.
• Expand activities and conduct that could fall under non-discrimination policy violations, such as “ostracism based on identity, such as refusing entry to an event,” or “calls for the genocide of an entire people or group.”
• Update its poster and banner approval policy, which Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr described in part in her December 10 statement at pomona.edu “to include further details regarding: what the College considers an ‘unreasonable duration,’ and; specific circumstances that may lead to a request being denied.”
• Update its ID policy to ban masked protesters on campus and define “encampment.” Pomona banned encampments and changed its ID policy in fall 2024 after a number of demonstrations that included masked protestors and an encampment at Marston Quad prompted the relocation of last year’s commencement ceremonies to the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
• Incorporate “mutually agreed upon [Hillel International Campus Climate Initiative] survey questions into the College’s upcoming climate survey, the legal policy review, and could also entail some form of focus groups and/or surveys of Jewish students.”
• Appoint a Title VI coordinator for compliance, investigation and adjudication purposes and provide them with training on Jewish identity and antisemitism by Brandeis University. Pomona College will also add a “report a title VI incident” to its “Diversity at Pomona” page on its website.
• Provide updated Title VI trainings to students, faculty and staff that “will explain prohibited antisemitic harassment based on shared ancestry, ethnicity, or national origin.” Additional trainings will be mandated for members of the Associated Students of Pomona College, Judicial Council, and Pomona College’s registered student organizations.
• Incorporate the following statement from the May 2023 United States National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism into its Title VI training materials: “Jewish students and educators are targeted for derision and exclusion on college campuses, often because of their real or perceived views about the State of Israel. When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, this is antisemitism. And that is unacceptable.”
• Offer programs “… related to the historical antecedents and modern manifestations of antisemitism and the connections between Judaism, Jewish identity, Israel, and Zionism.”
• Establish an advisory council on Jewish life and antisemitism made up of Jewish student leaders, staff, and outside community members.

Claremont Colleges student demonstrators from Pomona Divest Apartheid occupy Pomona College’s Alexander Hall during an April 5 protest. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

Though the December 10 settlement is with Pomona College only, it contains language confirming the school is committed to “initiating discussions and making a good faith effort to work with the other Claremont Colleges and the Consortium toward adopting the following policy and practice revisions and enhancements,” including:

• “Updating the Claremont Colleges Policy on Demonstrations to provide examples of ‘[n]on-peaceful actions or demonstrations’ and ‘[d]isruptive actions or demonstrations,’
• Updating and consistently enforcing the Claremont Colleges Policy on Demonstrations to, among other time, place, and manner restrictions:

1. Require permits or other permissions in advance of protests or demonstrations;
2. Make clear that all protests or demonstrations exceeding a certain number or threshold of people may only take place in certain designated areas on campus (and subject to required permits);
3. Prohibit protests or demonstrations from blocking walkways and entrances and/or taking place inside residence halls;
4. Prohibit protests or demonstrations from taking place on campus between 12 AM and 6 AM or inside any campus building outside of that building’s regular business hours (i.e., 8 AM – 5 PM, unless otherwise indicated);
5. Prohibit bullhorns, speakers, and other sound-magnification devices from being used near classrooms, residence halls, or libraries, or in any manner that disrupts regular College programs or activities;
6. Prohibit protesters from erecting permanent or semi-permanent structures, consistent with the Pomona Encampment Policy;
7. Prohibit protests or demonstrations that promote threats, obscenity, defamation, invasion of privacy, unlawful harassment, or that violate Pomona’s policies, rules, procedures, or the Pomona College Student Code;
8. Require protesters to provide Pomona identification to Campus Safety officers, other authorized College employees upon request, and/or law enforcement officers, consistent with the Pomona Encampment Policy; and
9. Require protesters, protests, and demonstrations to disperse when instructed to do so by an authorized College official (i.e., the President, Campus Safety officers, etc.), consistent with the Pomona Encampment Policy.”

Asked for comment in the settlement, Starr responded by emailing the following statement:

“We are pleased to have resolved these important discussions through a thoughtful and comprehensive mediation process. We appreciate the collaboration of the Brandeis Center, Hillel International and the Anti-Defamation League in these conversations and the role played by mediation representatives from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights. We especially want to thank our own students who brought their important concerns to our attention.

“We voluntarily entered into these discussions because the College takes seriously its obligation to evaluate complaints about discrimination and to see if there are additional steps we can take to strengthen a welcoming and supportive learning environment for our students and everyone at Pomona.

“At every step in the discussions over these last several months, the College stressed that any agreement must protect free speech (including peaceful protest), academic freedom and open inquiry; and must help us protect all our students, including Jewish and Israeli students, from discrimination and harassment. In every way, the agreement reached does so.

“We are also pleased that this agreement builds on several steps the College had already taken to improve our policies and practices before this mediation process even began. Specifically, we had already added shared ancestry as a category in the College’s harassment policies and had updated our time, place, and manner protest policies to further serve Pomona’s educational mission. We look forward to building on the work that this agreement carries forward for a strong and welcoming Pomona campus community.”

The mediation process was “supported by a neutral observer from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights,” according to Starr’s December 10 statement, viewable at pomona.edu/president, by navigating to “statements.”

Brandeis Center staff attorney Deena B. Margolies was asked about the importance of including language about Zionism in the settlement.

“It’s incredibly important and thank you for focusing on it because most of these students are actually being harassed, discriminated, ostracized, marginalized, on the basis of this,” Margolies said. “I mean for most Jewish people and Jewish students, Zionism is an integral part of their Jewish identity. You know, we have a shared ancestry and peoplehood in the land of Israel, a historical reach and to minimalize that and persecute them for this is persecuting them based on their Jewish identity.”

The agreement goes into effect in spring 2026 and will remain in place through spring 2028. A Title VI coordinator and Pomona’s FAQs webpage at pomona.edu/resolution-agreement will remain through spring 2029.

An additional federal probe into allegations of antisemitism at Scripps College remains unresolved. On February 24, the Brandeis Center, Anti-Defamation League, and Arnold & Porter filed a complaint alleging civil rights violations against Jewish and Israeli students. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation against Scripps on March 18.