New inquiry at UCI begins

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is opening a new investigation into allegations about an anti-Semitic incident at UC Irvine.

The investigation will look into claims of harassment during May of 2007 and the university’s reaction to it. The circumstances of the incident were not immediately clear. A representative for the Office of Civil Rights and a university spokeswoman did not know, and the Zionist Organization of America did not return follow-up calls.

The Zionist Organization of America claims incidents on the campus have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“UC Irvine will cooperate fully with the Office of Civil Rights as it looks into incidents that occurred last year, but were not considered during its comprehensive three-year investigation,” university spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon said in a statement. “UC Irvine is firmly and actively committed to doing all it can to protect its students, faculty, staff and visitors from discrimination and harassment not only because of the law and policy, but because it is the right thing to do.”

This is the second Office of Civil Rights investigation on the UCI campus concerning the issue of anti-Semitism. The first investigation was brought to the public’s attention in 2004, and a decision by the Office of Civil Rights was released in November of 2007 stating UCI was in compliance with the law and had responded adequately to harassment claims.

The report also said some incidents were out of the jurisdiction of the Office of Civil Rights, untimely, lacked evidence or did not deal with questions of national origin discrimination.

“These are totally independent cases,” spokesman for U.S. Department of Education Jim Bradshaw said. “Every complaint stands on its own merits.”

Bradshaw added that just because a complaint has been accepted for investigation by the Office of Civil Rights, it does not imply the office has made a “determination on the merits of the complaint.”

The investigation hopes to be concluded in about six months, which is the usual amount of time allotted before a determination is made, Bradshaw said.

But he added that some investigations can last longer, depending on the complexity of the issue.

U.S. Senators and other community leaders called the first investigation into question earlier this year due to the length of time it took for the Office of Civil Rights to release its report.

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.