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ADL Recognizes Colleges and Universities That Made Positive Strides to Fight Campus Antisemitism
Urges other institutions to follow suit as it reassesses Report Card grades
New York, NY, October 30, 2024 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today commended 10 colleges and universities for their recent efforts and policies to address campus antisemitism. Since the initial release of ADL’s Campus Antisemitism Report Card in April of 2024, and a subsequent update in June following the protest encampments, these institutions have taken proactive steps to foster a more inclusive environment for Jewish students and all students.
Almost all assessed colleges and universities have revised their protest, demonstration and time, place and manner policies in advance of the new academic year. Additionally, at least over 50% of these schools have enacted other major changes, including establishing task forces, mandating antisemitism education and ameliorating bias incident reporting and investigation processes.
In letters to the presidents of each of the institutions, ADL praised the schools for their progress in working to combat antisemitism on campus. In alignment with ADL’s Six Asks for combatting antisemitism on college and university campuses, these 10 institutions have implemented a number of critical policies:
- Alongside new procedures for campus demonstrations, the University of Pennsylvania has developed workshops on combatting antisemitism and hate for members of the campus community and established the Office of Religious and Ethnic Inclusion
. - University of Michigan has streamlined their system for responding to bias incidents, has hired a Title VI coordinator to support the University’s response to reports of discrimination or harassment and is in the process of developing a mandatory anti-discrimination training.
- Strengthening collaborative efforts, Michigan State University has convened a monthly gathering of colleagues to discuss issues of student safety. The University has also launched a DEI Foundations learning module that includes discussions of antisemitism.
- SUNY Purchase’s new ‘Diversity Defined’ resource firmly prohibits antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of discrimination, while simultaneously rejecting BDS.
- Prioritizing research efforts, CUNY Queens College has sought to assess antisemitism on campus through surveys and focus groups. The College is also working with the Jewish Community Relations Council Community Security Initiative to improve public safety.
- CUNY Brooklyn College has strengthened campus protest policies, organized regular Emergency Response Team meetings and has developed new orientation training that addresses antisemitism.
- In advance of the new academic year, the University of Colorado, Boulder amended its protected-class definitions webpage to explicitly prohibit antisemitism, Islamophobia and caste. This month, the University also de-recognized the campus SJP chapter.
- Barnard College amended the Expectations for Community Conduct policy to note that “substituting the word ‘Zionist’ as a proxy for ‘Jewish’ or ‘Israeli,’ for example, may constitute prohibited discrimination.”
- Wellesley College is providing anti-religious bias training to all residential life and orientation staff and has mandated Title VI training for all first years and other incoming students.
- New York University has launched a university-wide mandatory training that includes examples of conduct that would be considered discrimination against Jews or Israelis. The University was also the first to update its policy to explicitly underscore that code words like ‘Zionist’ could result in conduct violations.
“When we first launched the Campus Antisemitism Report Card, we urged university leaders to use the grades they received as motivation to do better and improve their scores, and in the cases of these 10 schools the progress has been demonstrable,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “These universities’ recent efforts and policies should lay the foundation for continued progress and should serve as a model for other schools to follow.”
ADL encourages these schools, and all colleges and universities, to continue their efforts in the ongoing fight against campus antisemitism, both via policy changes and through the consistent and balanced enforcement of said policies. Doing so sends an important message to their campus communities: antisemitism has no place on our campuses.
“We encourage these schools, and all colleges and universities, to continue their efforts in the ongoing fight against campus antisemitism,” said Shira Goodman, ADL Vice President of Advocacy. “There is much more work to be done to ensure that our campuses have no tolerance for antisemitism.”