Cooper Union settles lawsuit with Jewish students and makes sweeping changes to protest policy

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, a small private four-year college located in Lower Manhattan, will make sweeping changes to its protest and anti-discrimination policies to settle a lawsuit brought by Jewish students who accused the school of condoning antisemitism.

As reported by The New York Times, the settlement was announced Thursday by lawyers representing 10 Jewish students and will require the New York City college to recognize that harassment or discrimination based on an individual's Zionist beliefs, or their Jewish identity, violates its discrimination policies.

Other stipulations in the settlement require the college to prohibit student protesters from wearing masks to conceal their identities and to pre-approve all student-made posters and fliers to ensure that they do not contain discriminatory messaging.

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Ziporah Reich, the lawyer representing the Jewish students, said that while the First Amendment allows Americans to freely criticize Zionism, doing so pervasively or by intentionally targeting individuals could veer into harassment, the Times reported.

Reich, who works as director of litigation at the pro bono Lawfare Project, a pro-Israel legal organization representing the students, issued a statement following the settlement.

"Jewish students deserve to learn without being targeted, harassed, or excluded because of who they are or what they believe," Reich stated. "Universities have a legal duty to protect them."

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Cooper Union President Steven W. McLaughlin said in a statement the settlement "reflects our ongoing commitment to maintaining a campus where every student in our community feels respected, safe, and included."

The college was thrust into the spotlight in October 2023 after Jewish students became trapped inside the school's library as an anti-Israel rally moved through the building, with protesters banging on the doors and chanting "Free, free Palestine."

A video capturing the scene went viral on social media, prompting widespread backlash and leading several Jewish students to sue the school.

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Last February, a New York judge called out Cooper Union for its lack of action amid increasing antisemitism and denied its motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Jewish students.

"Title VI places responsibility on colleges and universities to protect their Jewish students from harassment, not on those students to hide themselves away in a proverbial attic or attempt to escape from a place they have a right to be," U.S. District Judge John Cronan wrote in his opinion on Feb. 5, 2025.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination over race, color, and national origin in any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. 

Fox News' Rachel del Guidice contributed to this report.