Gabi Starr announces 8 new policies that Pomona will comply with after ADL and Brandeis Center federal complaint

On Dec. 10, Pomona President Gabi Starr announced that Pomona would comply with an US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights investigation (OCR) on antisemitism by instituting 8 new policy changes. The investigation follows a complaint filed by the Brandeis Center and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) last April. Some policy changes include mandating Title VI training for anti-semitism, adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism and establishing a task force on anti-semitism. 

The following includes a list of changes made: 

• Appointing or engaging an individual (a Civil Rights and/or Title VI Coordinator) who will coordinate all aspects of Title VI campus harassment or discrimination, including antisemitism and Islamophobia based on shared ancestry, ethnicity or national origin.
• Amending and updating current ID policy provisions relevant to masking/concealment to clarify compliance requirements.
• Similar to our Title IX training, mandating annual Title VI training for all students, faculty and staff to include antisemitic and Islamophobia-based discrimination.
• Considering the contemporary examples under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism to the extent that any examples may be useful as evidence of discriminatory intent when investigating complaints.
• Amending the Poster and Banner Approval Policy—which stipulates that posters, table tents and other physical flyers/advertising related to events, activities or initiatives of unreasonable duration may not be approved—to include further details regarding:
  • what the College considers an ‘unreasonable duration,’ and;
  • specific circumstances that may lead to a request being denied.
• Expert-facilitated training for the Bias Report/Response Team and civil rights staff on Title VI investigation and response obligations.
• Re-engaging as a full participant in Hillel International’s Campus Climate Initiative (CCI).
• Establishing a Task Force, Committee or Advisory Council on Jewish Life and Antisemitism.

Mandatory “anti-semitism” trainings for students, staff and faculty

Starr agreed to mandate an annual Title VI training which will cover antisemitism on campus.

On Oct. 15, a group of students at Northwestern filed a lawsuit against the University’s mandatory “antisemitism” training created by the Jewish United Fund. The training equated any “critical engagement with Zionism with anti-Jewish statements by the Ku Klux Klan.” 

Northwestern prohibited 300 students from  registering for courses due to their refusal to comply with the mandatory training.

Following the IHRA definition of zionism, conflating it with antisemitism

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) defines antisemitism as actions that may target the state of Israel. These actions include claiming that the existence of the Zionist entity is a racist endeavor.

Palestine Legal’s resource titled “Backgrounder on Efforts to Redefine Antisemitism as a Means of Censoring Criticism of Israel” condemns the IHRA definition of anti-semitism stating, “blurring antisemitism with criticism of Israel will result in censorship of constitutionally protected political speech. Application of the IHRA definition would drive government officials into a morass of viewpoint-based distinctions and would compel and punish speech in violation of the First Amendment.”

Creating a task force on “Jewish life and antisemitism”

Starr has also announced the creation of a “Task Force, Committee or Advisory Council on Jewish Life and Antisemitism.”

Columbia University created its antisemitism task force on Nov. 1, 2023. Just nine days after, the university suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter. On Dec. 9, 2025 the same task force released a report targeting all Middle Eastern faculty for expressing anti-zionist ideology in their classes. The report called for Columbia’s administration to condemn faculty who openly denounced the Zionist entity in the media and on social media.

In April 2024, Palestine Legal filed a complaint to the US Department of Education to investigate anti-Palestinian racism at Pomona College following the “college president’s anti-Palestinian bias, the college’s threats to unmask protestors at the behest of an Israel advocacy group, its failure to take action against a Hillel affiliate who pressured students to dox student activists, and its violent crackdown on student protestors.”

In August 2024, the Department of Education opened the case but never followed up with a further investigation.