Students have been returning to classes this week amid tightened security, stricter rules about campus demonstrations, and the familiar sound of chants and drums as protesters continue to demand that their campuses cut ties with Israel.
The environment on college campuses this fall is nowhere near the intensity of the protests last spring, when activists set up encampments and took over campus buildings, scores of people were arrested, and college presidencies were toppled. But the rallies and demonstrations that have broken out on a handful of campuses across the country in recent weeks have familiar echoes. They’re also testing the new rules colleges rolled out over the summer to try to keep the chaos of the spring from returning.
Meanwhile, as pressure on colleges to crack down on antisemitism intensifies, a group that believes colleges have been too quick to equate anti-Israel sentiment with antisemitism released new guidelines on Thursday. The goal is to help administrators, educators and students understand where protected political words or actions cross the line into discrimination and antisemitism.
At Columbia University, a bronze statue known as Alma Mater in front of Low Memorial Library was splattered with red paint on Tuesday, the first day of classes. The gates to the campus, long open to the public, are now guarded and people have to show a campus ID to enter.
Just outside the gates, about 50 pro-Palestinian activists marched in circles on Tuesday. Holding Palestinian flags and shouting “Free Palestine,” the group urged faculty and students to join them rather than going to class. Pro-Palestinian activists set up a sit-in on Wednesday in the Columbia building where Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, teaches this fall.
At the University of Southern California, which last April canceled a valedictory address by a Muslim American student because of safety concerns, administrators last month also tightened access to the campus.
As part of its preparations for the fall semester, Yale University is seeking applicants for a new “administrator on call” — someone who can be available on short notice to serve as a mediator at protests and other events. The job requirements include “proven experience in conflict resolution, mediation, and de-escalation techniques,” “familiarity with university environments,” and “cultural competence and ability to work with diverse populations.” The university has tightened its restrictions on protests and leaders say the new administrator will help ensure that the campus’s free-speech policies are clear. Working with the university’s public-safety staff, the new hire will serve as an intermediary between the administration, students, faculty, staff, alumni, and external stakeholders.
At the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, at least four protesters were arrested last week after attempting to disrupt a campus festival. None were students. At Cornell University, a crowd of about 150 people marched into a campus dining hall last Monday, on the first day of classes, and issued a series of demands. That morning, the front door of an administrative building was shattered and antiwar graffiti was sprayed on the front of the building.
On Thursday, a group called the Nexus Task Force released a guide developed by scholars at campuses where protests broke out last spring. The “Campus Guide to Identifying Antisemitism in a Time of Perplexity” examines controversial rallying cries and phrases like “From the River to the Sea …” and “settler colonialism.” It provides a series of screening questions to help determine whether harshly worded chants and slogans, which many find offensive, cross the line from free speech to antisemitism.
Unlike other guides that equate strong criticism of Israel or Zionism with antisemitism, the Nexus guide encourages colleges to take a more nuanced look at the context, the intent, and impact of the contested remarks. “This approach acknowledges the risks of antisemitism being weaponized on both the right and the left and aims to provide clear guidelines for distinguishing between legitimate criticism and antisemitic behavior,” the group said in a news release.
The lead author, David N. Myers, is a professor of Jewish history at UCLA and director of the university’s Initiative to Study Hate. “A lot of the discourse around the protests has been cast in black-and-white terms, the forces of good versus the forces of evil. It’s a bit more complicated than that, and we want to make it more complicated,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “We’ve been casting too wide a net, and that makes it harder to identify what antisemitism is and how to fight against it.”
With the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack approaching, tensions are high and nerves are frayed, and those conversations will be difficult, he said. “The stakes are extraordinarily high,” he said. “I don’t think we have the luxury of waiting.” He urged colleges to “double down on education and not on sanctioning and prohibition.”
As the fall semester kicks off, colleges are facing increasing pressure, from politicians, alumni, donors, employees, and students, to crack down on antisemitic behavior while at the same time respecting free speech.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education announced that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was the sixth university to sign an agreement committing to improve its policies and training for responding to complaints of antisemitism and discrimination. The 2020 complaint that prompted the review involved swastikas appearing on campus, mezuzahs that were ripped off students’ doors, and a brick thrown through a Jewish fraternity’s window. After reviewing 135 allegations of antisemitism and four of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination, the department’s Office for Civil Rights found that the Illinois flagship inconsistently applied policies and hadn’t assessed whether students and employees faced hostile environments.
Meanwhile, college activists are vowing to employ new tactics to keep pressure on their institutions. The national umbrella for Students for Justice in Palestine has called for a day of action on September 12.
