Last year marked a low point for American universities. Rather than drawing attention for moulding thoughtful citizen leaders, campuses became ground zero for anti-Israel – and pro-Hamas – activity. However, as the new school year begins, there are efforts to make this year different.
Some universities have already laid down markers, retreating from last year’s excesses.
For example, KQED, California’s public radio, reported that the University of California’s president informed the system’s ten chancellors of “required policies that ban putting up tents and campsites on university property, blocking access to university buildings and masking to evade being recognised” along with requiring people to “identify themselves to university officials”.
The University of Michigan empowered police to arrest protesters who violate state law by trespassing.
On the East Coast, the president of Pennsylvania’s Haverford College announced she will “discontinue issuing presidential ‘statements’ except about matters that directly impact Haverford or higher education”. New York University’s spokesperson announced “conduct that otherwise triggers our non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy cannot be shielded by using ‘Zionist’ as a substitute or codeword for Jew or Israeli. Excluding Zionists from an open event, calling for the death of Zionists, applying a ‘no Zionist’ litmus test for participation in any NYU activity, is not allowed.” The University of Virginia is requiring anyone “wearing a mask or other device whereby a substantial portion of the face is hidden” to identify themselves “when requested by an authorised University official”.
New Jersey’s Rutgers University are suspending Students for Justice in Palestine through next summer, marking the group’s second suspension since last fall. Finally, when a building was vandalised at Cornell University in New York, the Vice President for University Relations told Fox News: “Those responsible will be subject to suspension and criminal charges.”
All of these institutions saw that last year’s campus chaos generated lawsuits and civil rights violation complaints filed with the federal Department of Education. Those factors further harmed universities’ reputations and fundraising, which hit them where it hurt.
Meanwhile, other schools are still marinating in last school year’s mire. The president of Connecticut-based Wesleyan University penned a New York Times op-ed expressing the hope his campus “will be more political” this year; campus radicals will surely be thrilled to oblige. When masked protesters at California’s Pomona College refused to stop blocking the doors for convocation, the college simply worked around them. The event was live-streamed.
Harvard continues to set a shoddy example. Liz Magill, who lost her job as the University of Pennsylvania’s president after having difficulty explaining to Congress whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates Penn’s conduct code, will be a “visiting senior fellow” at Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession. At Harvard, tolerating open antisemitism apparently remains acceptable. In New York, JTA reported that protesters gathered by Baruch College, which is part of the City University of New York (CUNY), with “a banner that said ‘Bring the war home’ alongside an image of an assault rifle.” A second banner telling Hillel to “go to Hell” included a red triangle, a Hamas-related symbol threatening attack. Baruch then issued a statement to JTA, implying that condemning protesters’ speech is sufficient. CUNY’s severe issues with antisemitism predate October 7, but too many universities have been following that same path.
A new survey from Alums for Campus Fairness (ACF) puts individual American campuses into context. Forty-four per cent of the Jewish students who responded “‘never” or “rarely” feel safe identifying as Jewish on campus. Further “almost 80 per cent avoid places, events, or situations because of their Jewish identity.” Eighty-one per cent said they or their friends received threatening or antisemitic messages, and 58 per cent said they or someone they knew were physically threatened for being Jewish. The report’s silver lining is that “2/3 [of] respondents who attended at least one [Jewish communal] event usually or always felt safe.”
Jewish students should seek out organised Jewish activities on their campuses this year. While universities experiment with how to best address campus antisemitism, that’s one adjustment within Jewish students’ control, and it can help make any campus feel more like home.
