Department of Education Is Investigating Harvard

Following a civil rights complaint filed by Arab and Muslim students against Harvard, the Department of Education has launched an investigation into the university. The students say that because they are Palestinian, Muslim, or supporters of Palestinian rights, they've been subjected to "rampant harassment and racist attacks including doxxing, stalking, and assault." Some students have been assaulted because they were wearing keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarves, the complaint says. A separate investigation into Harvard was opened last year after a similar complaint, as well as allegations of antisemitism on the campus, ABC News reports.

The Muslim Legal Fund, which filed the latest complaint on behalf of more than a dozen students, says in a news release that Harvard failed to protect the students from "harassment, intimidation, and threats." The fund claims students were met with "slow and ineffective responses" from Harvard administrators or, in some cases, even threatened that their "future academic opportunities" would be affected, NBC News reports. "We have been chased, spat at, stalked and hounded by doxxing trucks on campus, and even at our families' homes," says one of the students represented by the fund. Harvard says in a statement that it supports "the work of the Office of Civil Rights to ensure students' rights to access educational programs are safeguarded and will work with the office to address their questions." (More Harvard stories.)