What’s New
A series of alleged hate crimes over the past week has punctuated a month of heightened tensions on college campuses related to the Israel-Hamas war.
- Last Tuesday a Cornell University student was arrested for threatening to kill Jewish students and commit a mass shooting in a dining hall that serves kosher meals.
- On Friday an Arab-Muslim student at Stanford University was injured in a hit-and-run in which the suspect reportedly yelled, “f—- you and your people!” No arrests have been made.
- Also on Friday, a University of Massachusetts at Amherst student was arrested for allegedly punching a Jewish student and spitting on an Israeli flag.
The latest conflict in the Middle East erupted on October 7, when more than 1,400 Israelis were killed in a surprise attack by Hamas near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. About 240 Israelis and non-Israelis were taken hostage. More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in retaliatory airstrikes by Israel, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Civil-rights groups have reported increases in antisemitic and Islamophobic activity on campuses and demanded that colleges do more to respond to rhetoric and threats targeting certain groups.
The Details
The hate-crime reports reflect a broader trend on campuses of increased bias-related incidents — a category incorporating a range of conduct that, intentionally or unintentionally, discriminates against people based on their race, ethnicity, religion, or other identities.
Last week the Biden administration announced efforts to curb campus antisemitism, largely by focusing on responding to bias incidents before they escalate. Federal agencies are collaborating with campus law-enforcement officials to monitor hateful rhetoric online and encourage students to report potentially harmful behavior.
Additionally, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights will clarify on its form for reporting complaints that Title VI, which bars discrimination based on race, color, or national origin, protects against some forms of antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Some activists have criticized colleges and the federal government for not taking threats to Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim students seriously enough, and for moving to stifle protected pro-Palestinian speech.
“Campuses are struggling to respond to incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia,” said Kevin Kruger, president of Naspa: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.
The Backdrop
While the circumstances differed, a similar uptick in campus-bias incidents occurred after Donald J. Trump won the 2016 presidential election, as people with racist, sexist, and antisemitic views felt emboldened to act on them.
Those campus clashes drew renewed attention to bias-response teams, which offer a venue for reporting offensive behavior, provide support services to affected students, and keep an eye on larger trends that may be unfolding.
As bias incidents have increased “over the last six to 10 years,” more colleges have hired staff tasked with managing that response, said Roger L. Worthington, a professor and the executive director of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education, at the University of Maryland at College Park. That can look like a bias-response team, or a coordinator who works with different offices on campus, Worthington said.
The purpose of bias-response teams is not necessarily to find and discipline the person who made the comment or gesture, but “to communicate support to the community that was affected,” Kruger said. “A larger principle, whether today or even back then” — referencing the post-2016 election tensions — “is getting the right people in the room to think about how the campus will respond to events.”
Some critics have condemned bias-response teams, saying they chill free speech. Zach Greenberg, senior program officer for campus-rights advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said the teams may arrange meetings between administrators and students suspected of acts of bias or put notes on their records.
“This can have a deleterious effect on their free-speech rights,” Greenberg said.
Because bias-incident reporting is usually “anonymous and private,” Greenberg said he was not sure if colleges were seeing an increase in bias reports during the war. “Universities can be pretty tight-lipped about that, but I would imagine they are having a big uptick,” he said. “Many reports are submitted in the wake of these controversial free-speech events.”
FIRE, meanwhile, has seen a spike in requests for help since the Israel-Hamas war broke out. Last week Greenberg’s team reviewed 76 cases where people alleged their free-speech rights had been violated, he said.
What to Watch For
As the war continues, students and employees will expect their institutions to respond to speech that targets Jews and Muslims — even if it’s not a crime or violation of campus policy.
Colleges are directing students and others to report bias in a variety of ways.
After a flier showing a Hamas hostage was posted last month outside a Muslim prayer room on campus, St. John’s University, in New York City, encouraged students to use an online tool to report incidents of Islamophobia, antisemitism, racism, and hate speech to the Office of Equal Opportunity and Compliance.
Meanwhile, officials at Millersville University, in Pennsylvania, told people to report acts of bias through a campus-safety app or by calling the campus police. It was through the LiveSafe app that the campus police learned that a residence hall had been vandalized with swastikas on October 29. A man, who was not a student, was charged with vandalism.
On Monday, M. Elizabeth Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, stated in a message to the campus that “a small number of Penn staff members received vile, disturbing antisemitic emails threatening violence against members of our Jewish community, specifically naming Penn Hillel and Lauder College House.” The campus police notified the FBI, she wrote, and the matter is being investigated.
UMass-Amherst also urged students to report safety concerns to the campus police.
