08/05/2024
Action Alert: Protect Jewish College Students
As Jewish college students prepare to return to campus for the upcoming school year, their administrators must also be prepared to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all, free from hate-fueled intimidation, harassment, and bullying. Let the leadership of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, John Carroll University, Kent State University, Miami University, Oberlin College, Ohio State University, Ohio University, University of Akron, and University of Cincinnati know that they must strictly enforce their own rules to protect Jewish students. Click here to send a clear message that this academic year cannot start the way that the last one ended.
If you have students or are an alumni from another Ohio institution or one that is outside of Ohio, please consider sending this message to them:
Dear University Leader,
Across the country and throughout Ohio, Jewish students and organizations on college campuses were targeted with a level of hatred – including acts of violence and intimidation – not seen in a generation.
Those who orchestrated this systematic assault on Jewish life throughout the previous school year are already making plans to pick up in the fall semester where they left off in the spring semester.
For example, the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee chapter of the anti-Israel student group Students for Justice in Palestine has already announced that “Any organization or entity that supports Israel is not welcome at UWM. We refuse to normalize with extremists walking around our campus. Any organization that has not separated themselves from Israel will be treated accordingly as extremist criminals.”
This upcoming school year cannot be allowed to start the way that the last one ended – with anti-Israel protests quickly devolving into anti-Jewish rallies that create a campus-wide environment where Jewish students cannot learn or live without threat of violence or persecution.
Over the summer, the Ohio General Assembly passed the Campus Accountability and Modernization to Protect University Students (CAMPUS) Act, which further empowers universities to protect all students from hate. Between the existing school policies and codes of conduct and the additional authority under the CAMPUS Act, there is absolutely no excuse for your institution to be unable to meet the emotional and physical safety needs of your Jewish students or any other community on campus.
To do so, you must ensure that the school year starts off in an orderly and organized manner, including:
Clearly communicating campus rules, standards, and policies: Make clear to students what it means to be a member of the campus community, and ensure students, faculty, and staff are aware of school policies on protests and demonstrations.
Reaffirming faculty responsibilities: Ensure students’ academic freedom and a non-discriminatory learning environment in the classroom for all. Communicate and enforce policies regarding faculty who threaten to withhold students’ grades if faculty demands are not met, or who cancel mandatory classes.
Ensuring campus safety: Enforce university codes of conduct, maintain clear reporting avenues incidents of Jew hatred and all other forms of hate, ensure campus staff are trained to address violations of campus rules consistently, and reaffirm rejection of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) resolutions and academic boycotts of Israel.
Proactively combatting hate: Support Jewish students by unequivocally denouncing the hatred of Jews and taking the steps necessary to prevent discrimination and promote inclusivity for all – including providing the necessary education and training.
Work with organizations dedicated to Jewish life on campus. I’d welcome the opportunity to learn more about what plans are in place to make sure that the dangerous environment on far too many college campuses for Jewish students is not allowed to return in the new school year.
In the meantime, I hope it is a safe and successful academic school year for all of your students. Thank you in advance for all you will do to protect the Jewish students in your care.
