What’s New
Amid growing concerns about antisemitic rhetoric at colleges, the Biden administration announced on Monday new efforts aimed at antisemitism and related violence on campuses.
The announcement came after online posts over the weekend threatened Jewish students at Cornell University. On Sunday the campus police guarded the institution’s Center for Jewish Living and referred the posts to the FBI as potential hate crimes.
According to a White House statement, the U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Education have begun working with campus law-enforcement officials to track hateful rhetoric online and provide additional resources. Dozens of cybersecurity and protective-security experts from the Department of Homeland Security have been assigned to assist colleges.
The Details
Officials at Homeland Security and Justice have “disseminated public-safety information to and hosted multiple calls with campus law enforcement,” a White House official told CNN, as well as calls with state and local departments.
The International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, an organization that represents campus public-safety units, will act as a bridge between the federal government and campus officials to help mitigate hate, violence, and discrimination, according to its executive director, Paul M. Cell.
The organization is working with the government to “create programs that will really help students, first of all, report what’s going on, as well as giving more of a presence for the public safety and campus law enforcement at the universities” during student rallies focused on the conflict, Cell said in an interview.
A key goal is to get more faculty, staff, and students to feel comfortable and safe reporting incidents of hate and violence, Cell said. Then, the law-enforcement group will work with agencies to track the reports locally and federally.
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights will also clarify on its form for filing complaints that Title VI, the federal law barring discrimination based on race, color, and national origin, covers “certain forms” of antisemitism and Islamophobia. The office enforces civil-rights statutes by investigating colleges and reaching agreements to change policies and practices, but a backlog of complaints and a lack of resources have historically caused delays in resolving cases.
Education Department officials have visited multiple colleges in recent weeks to learn more about how antisemitism is manifesting on campuses, and they’re planning more visits this week to campuses in New York and Baltimore.
The Backdrop
With no sign of an end to the escalating war in the Middle East, colleges are scrambling to manage heightened campus tensions and to respond to community members, donors, and lawmakers who have demanded protections for Jewish students. Meanwhile, many students, faculty, and others argue that threats targeting Palestinian and Muslim students aren’t getting the same attention.
Pro-Israel and pro-Palestine students and activists have sparred on campuses in recent weeks. On Thursday, a pro-Palestine rally steps from Tulane University turned violent when someone tried to burn an Israeli flag. Three students were injured.
Last week, members of Students for Justice in Palestine at George Washington University projected messages criticizing Israel and the institution on a campus library for several hours. The messages ranged from “Glory to our martyrs,” which some argue applaud Hamas’s attack on Israel, to “GW is complicit in genocide in Gaza.”
Over 140 faculty members at Columbia University and Barnard College in New York signed an open letter published on Monday expressing solidarity with Palestinian students and supporters.
In Florida, public colleges were directed to “deactivate” their campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, with Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and the chancellor of the State University System of Florida saying that the organizations violated a state law barring “material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.” Legal experts said the order wouldn’t hold up in court.
The Stakes
As college leaders fret over taking sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Biden administration has staked out a position: Combating campus antisemitism is an immediate priority.
Julia Jassey, a co-founder and the chief executive of Jewish on Campus, a student-led organization that advocates for Jewish students, said the White House’s involvement gives college administrators more tools and resources to respond to antisemitism.
A federal show of support also sends a message to Jewish students, Jassey said. For many who fear discrimination and violence on campus, she said, “as they’re experiencing this, their experiences are also being invalidated.”
“To see senior folks in the administration really take a hard stance on this … helps to validate those fears students are experiencing, and it tells them that they’re not alone with what they’re feeling,” she said.
