Legal
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against Washington University in St. Louis on Wednesday, alleging that a mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center (SCC) segregated employees into Zoom breakout rooms by race. The charging party, a Black senior program manager, claims she was isolated and later terminated in retaliation for filing an EEOC complaint. The suit cites violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. The case reflects the EEOC's active enforcement against DEI programs under the Trump administration.
A coalition of unions, including the American Federation of Teachers, sued the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday over its regulatory definition of a "professional degree," which excludes education graduate programs. The definition determines federal student loan limits: programs classified as professional allow up to $200,000 in loans, while excluded fields like education are capped at $100,000. The lawsuit follows a federal judge's June order temporarily blocking the definition, prompting the department to expand the list to include nursing, physical therapy, athletic training, and occupational therapy—though education remains excluded as of July 10.
Columbia University faces a civil rights lawsuit from Palestinian students and employees who allege the Ivy League institution acted with deliberate indifference to harassment and actively participated in racially, ethnically, and politically motivated targeting. The complaint, filed Monday in New York County Supreme Court, seeks damages and court intervention, citing failures in handling discrimination complaints, viewpoint discrimination, and doxxing.