Cooper Union settles antisemitism lawsuit, agrees to new Title VI office and protest mask ban

On an October afternoon in 2023, ten Jewish students at The Cooper Union huddled inside the college’s glass-walled library as a crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators pounded on the doors and windows outside, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans.

The confrontation lasted about 20 minutes. There were no injuries or property damage, according to New York police. But the students said they were terrified and felt trapped. Less than two years later, that brief standoff has culminated in a far-reaching legal settlement that will reshape how the small Manhattan college handles antisemitism, protest and even the right to wear a mask on campus.

Settlement reached after Title VI lawsuit

On Jan. 8, Cooper Union agreed to resolve a federal civil-rights lawsuit brought by the ten students, who accused the school of failing to protect them from antisemitic harassment during and before the Oct. 25, 2023 protest. The deal requires the private college to overhaul its policies, create a dedicated Title VI coordinator, formally treat Zionism as a protected aspect of Jewish identity, consider a widely used definition of antisemitism, and ban masks intended to conceal protesters’ identities.

The settlement, filed in federal court in Manhattan, also includes an undisclosed monetary payment to the students. Cooper Union did not admit any wrongdoing.

“The settlement reflects our ongoing commitment to maintaining a campus where every student in our community feels respected, safe and included,” Cooper Union President Steven W. McLaughlin said in a statement. He said the college is “dedicated to continuing our efforts to confront discrimination of any kind, including antisemitism.”

The students’ lawyers cast the agreement as a landmark.

“This settlement is the result of the extraordinary courage of the students who came forward to demand accountability,” said Ziporah Reich, litigation director at The Lawfare Project, which represented the plaintiffs along with the law firm Arnold & Porter. “It sends a clear message that universities have a legal duty to protect them and will be held accountable when they fail to do so.”

What the lawsuit alleged

The case, Gartenberg et al. v. The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, was filed in April 2024 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs — all Jewish undergraduates at the time — alleged that Cooper Union violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as New York State and New York City human-rights laws, by allowing a hostile environment for Jewish students.

Title VI bars discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin by institutions receiving federal funds. Federal civil-rights officials have long treated antisemitism as potentially covered when it targets Jews as a racial or ethnic group.

The complaint said Cooper Union tolerated “severe and pervasive” antisemitic harassment on campus after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, culminating in the library incident. The students alleged that protesters, some masked, chanted slogans they understood as calls for violence, including “globalize the intifada” and “there is only one solution: intifada revolution,” and that the crowd converged on the library knowing Jewish students were inside.

They also claimed administrators failed to intervene, and asserted that campus officials told New York police officers who were present to “stand down” rather than disperse the demonstrators. The New York Police Department has said officers remained on campus throughout the protest and later escorted students out safely, and no criminal complaints were filed.

Protest organizers have denied antisemitic intent, saying they were protesting Israel and school administrators, not targeting Jewish classmates.

Cooper Union moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing in part that the protest was political speech protected by the First Amendment and that the college had taken reasonable steps to maintain safety, including locking the library doors.

Judge allowed key claims to proceed

In February 2025, U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan largely rejected that argument. In a 54-page opinion, he ruled that the students had plausibly alleged that they were subjected to a hostile environment because of their Jewish identity and that the college was deliberately indifferent.

Cronan wrote that, at the motion-to-dismiss stage, he was required to accept the plaintiffs’ factual allegations as true. Based on those allegations, he said, the conduct outside the library — crowding around visibly Jewish students, pounding on doors and glass and chanting in close proximity — could fall “entirely outside the ambit of the free speech clause” and amount to actionable harassment.

He sharply criticized an aspect of the school’s legal defense suggesting that the Jewish students could have avoided danger by moving to a less visible area.

“The Court is dismayed by the suggestion that the Jewish students should have hidden or left the library,” Cronan wrote, adding that “these events took place in 2023 – not 1943.”

Title VI, he said, places the burden on schools, not students, to prevent discriminatory harassment.

The opinion allowed the core Title VI and state and city claims to proceed, as well as the students’ request for punitive damages, increasing pressure on Cooper Union to settle.

Key changes Cooper Union agreed to

Under the agreement announced this month, Cooper Union will appoint a Title VI coordinator responsible for overseeing the school’s compliance with federal civil-rights law, receiving and investigating bias complaints, and providing training for students and staff. The coordinator’s portfolio will explicitly include complaints involving antisemitism and anti-Zionist harassment.

In one of the more notable provisions, Cooper Union will formally recognize Zionism — broadly defined as support for a Jewish homeland in Israel — as a protected facet of Jewish identity under its nondiscrimination policies. That means, Reich said, that targeting “Zionists” can, in some circumstances, be treated as targeting Jews.

“You can still criticize Zionism in the abstract,” she said. “But you cannot target Zionists, you cannot discriminate against Zionists and you cannot harass Zionists.”

The college also agreed to “implement all applicable guidance” from federal civil-rights authorities on antisemitism. That includes considering the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism and its contemporary examples when evaluating complaints, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

The IHRA definition, which describes several forms of extreme anti-Israel rhetoric as potentially antisemitic, has been adopted or referenced by many governments and institutions but is opposed by some civil-liberties and Palestinian-rights groups, who say it risks chilling legitimate criticism of Israeli policies.

The Cooper Union settlement comes as New York City is moving in the opposite direction. Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently rescinded a prior executive order adopting the IHRA definition for city agencies, citing concerns about free speech.

Another prominent term of the settlement is a new ban on masks or face coverings intended to conceal identity at campus protests. Cooper Union will also require participants in demonstrations to show valid Cooper Union identification on request.

Reich said that provision was prompted by the Oct. 25 protest, when some demonstrators’ faces were covered.

“Students were being terrorized by individuals who could hide behind masks and anonymity,” she said. “That will no longer be allowed.”

Supporters say such rules will make it easier to hold students accountable for harassment. Critics of similar measures at other schools have argued that mask bans make it harder for students to avoid doxxing and online harassment and could discourage peaceful protest.

A growing legal blueprint for universities

The Cooper Union agreement is one of several recent campus settlements involving antisemitism claims. New York University resolved a Title VI lawsuit in 2024 by strengthening policies and training. Harvard University reached a deal to end a similar case in late 2025, also promising reforms.

Together, the cases illustrate how private litigation, not only federal enforcement, is driving changes in how universities respond to antisemitism and anti-Zionist incidents in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. The U.S. Department of Education has opened its own civil-rights investigation into Cooper Union’s handling of antisemitism, a separate process from the students’ lawsuit.

For the students at the center of the Cooper Union case, the settlement closes a legal chapter that began with a frightening half-hour behind glass doors. For colleges nationwide, it adds to a growing blueprint — one that reaches from Title VI offices to protest rules — for how they will be expected to protect Jewish students, and how they will draw the line between protected political speech and prohibited harassment when the chants outside get loud.