PSU Title VI Investigation

From: Portland State University Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine 

On August 15, 2024, President Ann Cudd and Portland State University were notified that the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) was opening an investigation on the failure to respond to the harassment of Palestinian and Muslim students and faculty in a manner consistent with the requirements of Title

VI. Specifically, OCR is investigating the failure of PSU to respond appropriately to reports of anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic flyers posted in a campus building. 

As noted in the Oregonian (August 8) and Vanguard (September 20), over the summer, faculty, students, and staff found and removed anti-Palestinian flyers on the first floor of Cramer Hall. 

To be clear, students, faculty, and staff found and removed anti-Palestinian flyers at least 3 times a week in the same exact location of Cramer Hall. At least 5 different reports were made to President Cudd and the PSU administration about the flyers. 

On August 8, faculty and staff identified and spoke with the person responsible for posting the flyers. The name of the individual was shared with the PSU administration and the OCR investigating attorney. 

We are withholding the name of the individual responsible because we want to remain focused on holding President Cudd responsible for allowing ongoing harassment of Palestinian and Muslim students and faculty. 

Despite claims otherwise, there was no response from PSU during the months of July and August concerning the flyers. In fact, a PSU administrator minimized the anti-Palestinian sentiment by stating PSU was “aware of flyers posted in Cramer Hall that some may consider hate speech” in the August 8th Oregonian article. 

On September 3rd, the PSU administration sent a response about the flyers to only a few people on campus. President Cudd briefly mentioned the Oregonian article and PSU response in her September 13th blog post. In her blog post, the President omits that the flyers were continuously removed by faculty, students, and staff rather than by facilities or PSU administration. The President also omits that the reports made by students, faculty, and staff to President Cudd and PSU Office of Equity and Compliance were responded to inconsistently at best and intentionally misleading at worst. Nor did she report that PSU was under an OCR Title VI investigation for failing to respond appropriately. 

In that same blog post, President Cudd again centered the safety of Jewish students while she allowed the spread of anti-Palestinian hate in Cramer Hall. This creates a dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric that deepens divides, promotes intolerance, and is capable of inciting widespread discrimination and violence beyond the PSU campus. 

We are deeply troubled by the silence around the flyers and the connection of the responsible individual to a large PSU donor. We are troubled by the ways PSU donors, Board of Trustee members, and others are influencing President Cudd’s inconsistent and opaque response to anti-Palestinian hate on campus. 

We urge the PSU community to be vigilant in holding President Cudd to a standard of transparency and inclusion for all on campus. We ask for transparency around the formation and the rights and responsibilities of the Committee on Socially Responsible Investment and Partnership. We ask the committee to look beyond connections to Boeing in examining the local, national, and global impacts of PSU donors and other partnerships.