 NEW YORK (Press Release) — Students facing disciplinary action resulting from their roles in campus anti-Israel demonstrations may have their academic degrees withheld by their respective universities.
Top Stories Penn. In an email to the University of Pennsylvania community yesterday, Interim President Larry Jameson shared the final reports from two bodies formed to respond to rising antisemitism and virulent anti-Israel protests on the West Philly campus. The Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community had a series of recommendations including the establishment of a Center for the Study of Hate and Intolerance and a new undergraduate requirement to enroll in a seminar exploring a “challenging topic and emphasizing productive dialogue.” The University Task Force on Antisemitism suggests, among other things, prioritizing making antisemitism awareness and training part of orientation; reissuing a clear statement opposing BDS; and enhancing and making transparent the status of incident investigations. And yet, the Task Force now appears to distance itself from the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism (the most widely accepted definition today, and the one that the Department of Education takes into account when investigating Title VI complaints), and characterizes Zionism as akin to a “political idea or entity,” wholly missing the mark. We’ll be watching closely and will not let up on our advocacy. Wayne State. Police officers cleared an anti-Israel encampment at Wayne State University in Detroit on Thursday morning, reportedly arresting at least 12 people. In a statement that same morning, University President Kimberly Andrews Espy said the encampment posed “legal, health and safety, and operational challenges for our community” and “created an environment of exclusion — one in which some members of our campus community felt unwelcome and unable to fully participate in campus life.” Unsurprisingly, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12) arrived a few hours after the encampment was cleared and gathered with roughly 50 protesters who continued chanting and standing at a campus entrance that was blocked by police, according to local reporting. Denver. After three weeks of disruption, protesters at an anti-Israel encampment at the University of Denver gave up and went home. Really. According to the local CBS affiliate, “After a meeting with DU administration, the group said they decided to close the camp when they realized the DU chancellor was not going to ‘engage seriously with student concerns and demands.’” Sometimes a “no” is all you need. UCSB. Up until Wednesday night, University of California, Santa Barbara was the only UC school whose student government had not passed a BDS resolution. But with a new SJP-majority student government sworn in to office, its first order of business was to pass a BDS resolution. To a Degree. Universities across the country are holding back degrees from students who face disciplinary issues after participating in anti-Israel protests this year. Adding to decisions from Harvard University and Princeton University that were covered in earlier editions of the Alert, the University of Chicago reportedly emailed four students this week saying their degrees “will not be conferred until the resolution of this matter occurs.” Meanwhile, the New College of Florida released a statement saying complaints had been filed against five students who disrupted the College’s May 17 commencement, which could lead to suspension, expulsion, or withholding degrees. And at Case Western Reserve University, degrees for several students are still being withheld after the University sent letters to dozens of students earlier this month “barring them from campus and commencement ceremonies while temporarily withholding their degrees.” |
| Campus Champions
Friends Like These. Polling shows that most Americans do not support the anti-Israel protests on campus, but leaders across the world do. Yesterday, the Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, the largest exporter of antisemitic terror in the world, tweeted “Dear university students in the United States of America, this message is an expression of our empathy & solidarity with you.” Not to be outdone, the al-Qaeda senior command issued a statement: “While we support the assassination of the infidel Zionists and the beheading of them, we also appreciate and value the movement of Western demonstrators and sit-in students from Western universities.” In the House. On Tuesday, the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce informed the presidents of Yale University and the University of Michigan that they would appear before the committee to address the schools’ “response to antisemitism and failure to protect Jewish students.” Unlike recent testimony from university presidents on antisemitism, these hearings will not be open to the public but will be transcribed. Moreover, questions will be “conducted by counsel(s) and/or Committee staff,” rather than members of Congress. Yale President Peter Salovey is scheduled to appear before the committee on June 20, 2024, while Michigan President Santa Ono is set to appear on August 9, 2024. In a statement, committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC-5) said the committee has identified “patterns of antisemitism” on these campuses that require their leaders to “answer questions on their records.” |
| Am Yisrael Chai 💪✡️
The 500. Natan Sharansky — the Israeli leader, human rights activist, and author — wrote about the need for more Jewish students to stand up bravely against anti-Israel protesters. In an article referencing the letter Jewish students at Columbia wrote, he writes, “Until America’s Jewish students publicly claim their right to their Jewish and Zionist identity, they will continue to fight at a disadvantage. However, if the Jewish students of Cornell, Stanford, Harvard, and the other campuses will join Columbia’s Jews in their public statement, they stand a chance to do more than stand up for their own truths — they stand a real chance to revolutionize the campuses, defeat the antisemitic forces that have occupied them, and win the battle for American Jewry’s future.” Citizens Spokespeople. Eylon Levy, the former Israeli government spokesperson, has started the Israeli Citizens Spokespersons’ Office, an effort to train regular citizens to be advocates for Israel in their native languages. “You don’t have to be an official spokesperson to speak up for Israel,” Levy told the Jerusalem Post. “The Jewish People and Israel are under attack all around the world.” Daily updates are provided Sunday through Thursday on all social media platforms at 8 AM ET. Marching On. New York City’s annual Israel Parade is expected to draw tens of thousands of attendees this Sunday, June 2, and organizers say this year’s parade will have a straightforward message: “Bring them home.” Each marcher will be given an Israeli flag so that Fifth Avenue is a sea of blue and white. This year’s parade will also feature 24 new participating groups, including our friends at Mothers Against Campus Antisemitism, the Facebook group that formed in the wake of the 10/7 massacre to call out antisemitism on college campuses. Security will be tight, but as Mark Treyger, CEO of New York’s Jewish Community Relations Council said: “We will be defined by our strength and our resilience and our love for our Jewish identity. For our solidarity for the hostages and their families. We‘ll be defined by our unwavering dedication and love for Israel.” See you there! * |