During the Spring 2024 semester, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) held a series of listening sessions with leaders from a diverse set of postsecondary institutions to hear about the development and implementation of schools’ codes of conduct and anti-harassment policies. As we witness an alarming rise in threats and harassment of Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students on college campuses, especially since the October 7, 2023, Israel-Hamas conflict, the Department is committed to ensuring that all students are members of school communities that are free from discrimination.
Participants in the listening sessions included representatives from institutions from across the country, including from public and private institutions, independent colleges and universities, two-year and four-year colleges, including community colleges, and urban and rural schools. The institution leaders shared promising strategies for creating safe and inclusive learning environments where students can experience diversity in all forms, including diverse viewpoints, in a manner that is free from discrimination, including harassment. Some of these strategies included:
- School leadership must meet regularly and engage with students across all viewpoints and identities. University leaders should build and maintain these relationships both proactively and in response to any questions or concerns.
- Schools should utilize “retail politics” to communicate, and explain, policies to school community members including students, parents, faculty members, and staff.
- Schools should consider their role as educational institutions beyond the classroom and provide space for students to learn about various issues impacting communities on campus.
- School leadership should establish mechanisms to receive feedback and aim to reply to every email and letter directly and in a timely manner. Where possible, responses should address the concerns raised and avoid boilerplate language.
- School leaders should engage with students, alumni, and community members who seek to plan events on campus to make sure that these individuals are aware of university policies in advance. Universities should aim to ensure that all participants in events, both community members and those from outside of the school, understand what is and is not permitted on campus.
- School leadership should ensure that their policies are comprehensive, accessible, and understandable. Policies should clearly address political activities and free expression. Schools should consider how these polices may need to be adapted for online conduct.
- Policies should clearly communicate how they apply to participants in on-campus activities who are not part of the school community.
- Schools should adopt a process to review policies on a regular basis, for instance every three years, and avoid conducting reviews only in response to particular incidents.
- As schools reconsider their policies, they should utilize a whole-of-campus approach by including a broad swath of institutional representatives at the decision-making table.
- Leadership should consider regularly communicating with students, faculty, staff, and other members of the school community about policies in creative ways, like with videos, FAQ documents, and examples.
- Schools should look beyond codes of conduct and consider other policy statements such as civility codes, anti-harassment policies, time/space/manner policies, facilities policies, and mission statements to communicate expectations.
- Schools must be diligent about holding students and other community members accountable when there are policy violations and communicate clearly and consistently to maintain community safety.
- When incidents arise, schools should clearly and widely communicate the course of action they are taking to ensure the safety of impacted school communities, while also making every effort to protect the privacy of individual students involved.
- Schools should make sure students know how to report a violation and to whom. They may consider steps to proactively foster trust to ensure that students feel comfortable coming forward.
- Schools should consider providing alternative options to respond to complaints such as restorative justice, at the discretion of the complainant.
- School leaders should ensure that there is adequate and equitable funding for student life activities.
The Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships serves as the primary Department representative to the Interagency Policy Committee to Counter Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Related Forms of Discrimination and Bias. For additional information about these listening sessions and our commitments to fostering inclusive learning environments for all students, please contact EDPartners@ed.gov.