Following the recent surge of complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia on college campuses—and increased scrutiny from the federal government—more and more universities are creating new jobs to lead the institutions’ response to these complaints.
Turning to a coordinator to handle all things Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is just the latest sign that colleges and universities are working to update processes, policies and procedures related to civil rights after finding themselves unprepared to handle complaints—a gap that the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has called on institutions to address. The growth in positions also indicates that colleges don’t expect the scrutiny on Title VI to end any time soon.
Experts and college leaders hope that the new positions will help colleges provide a cohesive and thorough response to complaints of race and shared ancestry discrimination. It’s an especially important goal after many colleges found themselves unprepared to handle the shared ancestry discrimination complaints that arose from the pro-Palestinian protests and encampments that overtook campuses in fall 2023 and spring 2024.
The shift mimics Title IX’s in the early 2010s, which itself was spurned by complaints and litigation over colleges’ handling of sexual assault complaints. In addition to Title VI coordinators, colleges have created Title VI centers and offices, created new trainings and re-evaluated investigative procedures.
The new positions, too, will likely mirror the role of Title IX coordinators who oversee sexual harassment and discrimination investigations, provide outreach on campus about Title IX, and track campus climate trends and patterns. Colleges started hiring Title IX coordinators in the last decade after the Obama administration used the gender equity law to crack down on campus sexual assault. In 2020, President Donald Trump’s Title IX regulations codified the position into law, requiring all campuses to have such a person on staff.
But similar positions for Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin, were virtually nonexistent prior to last year. Now, dozens of institutions have hired or are planning to hire or appoint a Title VI coordinator, including New York University, the University of Delaware, the University of Mississippi and more.
‘Gray Zone’
It’s not necessarily surprising that colleges have underinvested in Title VI. In contrast with Title IX, the Education Department has never released regulations for the law, leaving little clarity for institutions about how they should respond to Title VI complaints. And Title VI complaints are the least common type of civil rights complaint, according to Office for Civil Rights data; in fiscal year 2022, before the Israel-Hamas war began, allegations of Title VI violations made up only 17.3 percent of the complaints OCR received, in comparison with Title IX (49.2 percent) and the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 (33.4 percent), which protect against disability discrimination.
The number of Title VI complaints increased 29.4 percent over the next two years. Complaints related to shared ancestry increased sevenfold from 2023 to 2024.
“Most schools have a Title IX coordinator and an accessibility services coordinator,” said Beth Gellman-Beer, an 18-year OCR veteran who lost her job as part of the office’s March reduction in force. “Then there’s kind of this gray zone where schools never really understood what their obligations were under Title VI and didn’t know where to place that role.”
As a result, she said, many institutions’ Title IX coordinators have historically handled Title VI complaints. But that could be problematic, as many Title IX coordinators are unfamiliar with Title VI and what should be considered a racially hostile environment, an antisemitic hostile environment or an Islamophobic hostile environment. Plus, most are already overburdened with their Title IX duties alone.
That lack of infrastructure to respond to Title VI complaints came to a head when reports of Islamophobia and antisemitism on campuses ballooned in fall 2023, experts told Inside Higher Ed.
“If you think about Title VI’s role in addressing Islamophobia or antisemitism, the students who are impacted by that could walk into a hundred different offices and talk to a hundred different people and say, ‘hey, this happened to me and I have this concern,’” said Brett Sokolow, chair of the crisis management consulting and law firm TNG Consulting and former executive director of the Association of Title IX Administrators. “If you have a sort of decentralized model, then maybe the person gets to the services and resource they need or maybe they don’t.”
With a Title VI coordinator, however, “there’s a no-wrong-doors approach. Whichever door, whatever office they walk into … the employee receiving that report knows right away, ‘Hey, I’ve got to connect you with the Title VI coordinator.’”
Mandated Hires
In some cases, institutions were required to create a new Title VI role as a result of a lawsuit or a resolution agreement with OCR. (According to Gellman-Beer, many resolution agreements related to shared ancestry since Oct. 7 in which OCR made an adverse finding against the institution required the college to hire a Title VI coordinator.)
The University of Washington, for example, agreed to hire a Title VI coordinator as part of the resolution of two antisemitism complaints. The university was also directed to stand up a new office under which the Title IX and Title VI coordinators would both be housed, “to ensure consistent approach across these processes and better monitor, appropriately direct and resolve incoming complaints,” according to the resolution letter.
“The Title VI Coordinator will be responsible for coordinating the University’s compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,” the university wrote in an April announcement about the new position. “In addition to compliance, the Title VI Coordinator will contribute to and provide leadership for a wide range of civil rights initiatives and processes. The position supports the University’s commitment to protecting educational access and employment opportunities and preventing and responding to harassment and discrimination.”
In other cases, it was a proactive step. In April, the State University of New York system, the largest public college system in the nation, required each of its campuses to bring on a Title VI coordinator by fall 2025.
“We really have tried to be very thoughtful about ensuring that all of our campuses are safe and supportive environments free from harassment and discrimination. We take Title VI enforcement seriously,” said SUNY chancellor John B. King in an interview.
The system had already mandated Title VI trainings for all faculty and staff and is in the process of doing the same for student leaders and residential life staff.
“We felt like a next step to ensure that our campuses are doing everything they can would be to have a designated person, just as we do for Title IX, for Title VI,” he said, “so that that person can be the lead on a campus.”
