Our Civil Litigation attorneys in MLFA’s Legal Division filed a Title VI shared ancestry discrimination complaint with the Department of Education this week, against the University of California-Irvine (UCI) on behalf of students and faculty on that campus. The complaint brings to light the discriminatory treatment both students and professors who participated in peaceful pro-Palestinian protests endured—and still experience—on UCI’s campus. In May of 2024, UCI administration called hundreds of police officers in riot gear to campus, and issued false public statements about the protests that it later had to retract. These officers then violently attacked and arrested both students and faculty who were peacefully commemorating the Nakba. UCI administrators then penalized the arrested students by barring them from campus housing and rendering them immediately homeless, and also threatened faculty who support these students with negative professional consequences. Our attorneys urge the Office for Civil Rights to promptly investigate UCI administrators’ discriminatory acts against its Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and allied students as well as faculty for their pro-Palestinian advocacy.
Hear from our Civil Litigation Department:
“This discrimination affects the entire campus,” said Civil Litigation Senior Staff Attorney Chelsea Glover, one of the attorneys who filed the complaint. “Universities across the country continue to direct their actions against both the students they have an obligation to protect, and the faculty who speak up for them. Both groups have legally protected right, and UCI’s actions ignored all of those rights.”
“The law does not allow campus administrators to discriminate simply because they don’t like the views expressed by students or faculty,” added Civil Litigation Department Head Christina Jump, who also brought this complaint. “UCI let these students down. And UCI let its own employees down. UCI broke its promises to both groups, and it broke the law.”
We see these same violations occurring at campuses across the country. See the article below discussing just some of the individuals whose employment came under threat, or ended, due to their pro-Palestinian words.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/24/university-professors-discipline-palestine-support