Georgia Tech students will vote on approving a change to the school&rsquo;s fight song in the interest of gender inclusivity.The second verse of &ldquo;Ramblin&#39; Wreck from Georgia Tech&rdquo; <a href="https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.gatech.edu/dist/9/988/files/2021/02/Fight-Song-Lyrics.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reads</a>, &ldquo;If I had a daughter, sir, I&rsquo;d dress her in White and Gold, and put her on the campus to cheer the brave and bold.&rdquo;&nbsp;However, students will be able to vote upon changing the word &ldquo;cheer&rdquo; to &ldquo;join.&rdquo;The spring 2021 student government elections <a href="https://www.sga.gatech.edu/elections/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ballot</a> contains a referendum for amending the lyrics.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15776" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Georgia Tech coughs up $50k to settle free speech lawsuit involving MLK&#39;s niece]</a>In a <a href="https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.gatech.edu/dist/9/988/files/2021/03/Fight-Song-Referendum-Bill-1.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">resolution</a> establishing the referendum, the undergraduate student legislature noted that an identical ballot measure was offered six years ago. At the time, 71.29 percent of respondents voted against swapping &ldquo;cheer&rdquo; with &ldquo;join,&rdquo; with 82 percent of alumni and 68 percent of students opposing the change.The resolution also reported that at the time, 70.67 percent of all respondents &ldquo;did not think there was a pertinent issue of gender equality on our campus.&rdquo; The vote was relatively evenly distributed, with 73 percent of alumni and 70 percent of the undergraduate and graduate students agreeing with the statement.The student government noted that the School Chairs of each academic department recently &ldquo;submitted a formal request to honor Georgia Tech&rsquo;s women students&rdquo; by changing the fight song.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15294" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Majority of Georgia Tech profs call for &#39;default&#39; virtual instruction]</a>Caleb Torres, Chief of Staff to the Student Body President at Georgia Tech, told Campus Reform that &ldquo;as of now, the course of action pertaining to the proposed change to the fight song is undecided.&rdquo;&ldquo;We will continue collaborating with the Institute, including the group of School Chairs who proposed the change,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;The referendum is simply helping us collect the opinions of the student body on this important issue.&rdquo;Campus Reform reached out to Georgia Tech and the student government for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

In 2015, students overwhelmingly shot down the same proposed change.

Georgia Tech may change its fight song to be more gender-inclusive

Nearly 89 percent of students who voted in the University of Virginia&rsquo;s recent Student Council elections approved removing gendered pronouns from their constitution.The first referendum question on the students&rsquo; ballot was entitled &ldquo;Modernization and Inclusion of Student Council Constitution.&rdquo; As University of Virginia Student Council Director of University Relations Noah Strike confirmed to Campus Reform, the updates strike &ldquo;any use of &lsquo;he or she,&rsquo; him or her,&rsquo; or &lsquo;his or hers&rsquo; to the gender-neutral singular &lsquo;they&rsquo; pronoun&rdquo; in the student government&rsquo;s constitution.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16251" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UVA student newspaper opinion writer: &#39;Stand up&rsquo; to &lsquo;racist family&#39; at Thanksgiving]</a>&ldquo;Seeing as our offices are all gender-neutral (i.e. not limited to &lsquo;men only&rsquo; etc.), the update reflects how students of any gender identity could serve in positions,&rdquo; explained Strike.According to Strike, 25 percent of the student body<a href="https://studentelections.virginia.edu/spring-2021-election-results" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> voted</a> on the referendum question, with 88.75 percent approving the passage. The minimum threshold for passage is a 66.6 percent affirmative vote.Strike told Campus Reform that the team is currently working to update the existing constitution. The current version was last <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba956a916b6406fa63a6a71/t/5c639444f4e1fc401aec7ed1/1550029892918/Student+Council+Constitution.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">amended</a> in February 2008.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16874" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UVA, fourth best public college in US, lowers academic standards for two more years]</a>According to Strike, the University of Virginia Honor Committee&#39;s governing <a href="https://honor.virginia.edu/documents" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">documents</a> were &ldquo;updated to include gender-neutral pronouns&rdquo; in 2018.As Campus Reform recently reported, the University of Virginia Student Council recently passed legislation to encourage the university to &ldquo;divest&rdquo; from fossil fuel investments.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16898" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Utopian dream? UVA student gov wants &#39;community gardens&#39; instead of fossil fuels]</a>Campus Reform reached out to the University of Virginia for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

Nearly 89 percent of the student body voted to scrap gendered pronouns for gender-neutral pronouns, such as “they.”

UVA students scrap gendered pronouns from constitution

A University of Utah campus recreation job posting demands that applicants &ldquo;promote racial equity and inclusivity.&rdquo;The university <a href="https://archive.vn/9okNH" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">published</a> a job ad for a Campus Recreation Director of Student Services who is able to &ldquo;nurture the habit of using a racial equity lens in the operation of the department.&rdquo; The successful candidate will earn between $90,000 and $115,300 annually.The candidate must also be able to develop &ldquo;an efficient diverse department by recruiting, hiring, training, retaining, evaluating and providing development opportunities for all Campus Recreation Services staff members.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17031" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: &#39;Woke&#39; books authored by &#39;anti-racist&#39; profs infiltrate US Navy reading list]</a>The candidate must also be &ldquo;knowledgeable about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion best practices as they relate to the mission of the department and university as a whole&rdquo; and facilitate &ldquo;a work environment that encourages knowledge of, respect for, and development of skills to engage with those of other cultures or backgrounds.&rdquo;Indeed, at least five of the nineteen job responsibilities are directly related to diversity or cultural sensitivity.A student affairs employee at the University of Utah &mdash; who told Campus Reform that &ldquo;having my name attached to anything critical of racial equity would have detrimental effects on my career&rdquo; &mdash; noted how &ldquo;the posting lists &lsquo;promote racial equity&rsquo; is listed first, meaning that it was most important to the job posting.&rdquo;&ldquo;This issue with this is that student affairs professionals are not and should not be activists,&rdquo; the employee explained. &ldquo;For a public institution to institute a purity test and ask their employees to promote and implement a divisive ideology should be unacceptable.&rdquo;The employee also believes that generally speaking, &ldquo;the university is sacrificing their stated mission on the altar of wokeness&rdquo; by emphasizing &ldquo;social justice activism over intellectual development of students and in this instance, effective management of their rec center.&rdquo;Campus Reform has repeatedly reported on universities&rsquo; fascination with ensuring that administrators address race relations. In many cases, universities have hired vice presidents and directors of diversity, equity, and inclusion.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16473" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Rutgers pays new &#39;Equity&#39; VP $300,000, despite projected $200 million COVID losses]</a>Campus Reform reached out to the University of Utah for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

Five of the nineteen listed job responsibilities directly relate to racial equity or diversity.

Want to work in the University of Utah’s gym? Better bring your ‘racial equity’ creds.

The English department at the University of Arizona has released a list of new courses that are scheduled to begin this Fall. One class on this list is titled &ldquo;<a href="https://english.arizona.edu/upcoming-courses" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Anger and Resentment in the Wake of Trump and the Coronavirus</a>.&rdquo; <a href="https://english.arizona.edu/people/matthew-abraham" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Matthew Abraham</a>, an English Professor specializing in &ldquo;Rhetoric and Composition&rdquo; at the University of Arizona, is listed as the instructor for the online course which will last 7 weeks. Abraham is the<a href="https://parlorpress.com/products/the-making-of-barack-obama-the-politics-of-persuasion" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;co-editor</a> of &ldquo;The Making of Barack Obama: The Politics of Persuasion&rdquo; and the <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137031945" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">author</a> of &ldquo;Intellectual Resistance and the Struggle for Palestine.&rdquo; The <a href="https://catalog.sbs.arizona.edu/?dept=9&faculty=Abraham" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">professor</a> currently teaches several classes including &ldquo;Studies in Rhetoric and Composition&rdquo; and &ldquo;Critical Cultural Concepts.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16951" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16951" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16951" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Here&#39;s how much American academia spent lobbying the federal government]</a> According to a description of the curriculum, the students will focus on exploring &quot;the role of anger and resentment in the context of understanding this current historical and political movement that has made resistance fashionable again.&rdquo; Division in our nation is due to &ldquo;anger, resentment, and calls for resistance&rdquo; that have been &ldquo;especially prominent since January of 2017,&rdquo; the website states. The brief summary goes on to mention the Coronavirus pandemic and the lack of resources which have caused &ldquo;general disgust directed toward those who look or behave differently.&rdquo; &ldquo;The rise of the Black Lives Matter Movement, #MeToo, and immigrant activism point to a widespread recognition of how systemic abuses of power are being resisted strongly by certain demographic sectors,&rdquo; the course description states. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17021" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17021" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17021" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Collin College fires prof who tweeted about Mike Pence&#39;s &#39;demon mouth&#39;]</a> &ldquo;At the center of this storm of protest and resistance is the presidency of Donald J. Trump, whose unprecedented campaign and election fueled the rise of large-scale resistance movements among women, ethnic minorities, environmentalists, and ordinary citizens intent on defending constitutional norms and mainstream governmental institutions,&quot; the description continues. The course description makes a direct link between the &ldquo;backlash against these movements&rdquo; and &ldquo;the rise of white supremacy and white nationalism.&rdquo; University of Arizona&rsquo;s web page also addresses some questions that will be &ldquo;explored&rdquo; during the class, such as &ldquo;how have other oppositional movements, such as those expressing nativist and racial supremacist sentiments, channeled their anger and resentment in the age of Trump through social media?&rdquo; &nbsp; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17010" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Iowa universities receive backlash for silencing conservative voices on campus]</a> The possible textbooks listed for this course are &ldquo;<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190785/deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism</a>,&rdquo; &ldquo;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dying-Whiteness-Politics-Resentment-Heartland/dp/1541644980" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America&rsquo;s Heartland,</a>&rdquo; and &ldquo;<a href="https://katherinestewart.me/books/the-power-worshippers/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism</a>.&rdquo; Alton Zhang, the President of College Republicans at University of Arizona, stated during a phone call with Campus Reform that &ldquo;the U of A CR&rsquo;s are incredibly appalled by these actions&rdquo; and &ldquo;colleges were never meant to be politicized. It&rsquo;s very upsetting to see an Arizona college stoop to this level.&rdquo; &ldquo;When a professor puts together a class like this it makes you wonder what their true intentions are for their students. Because in the end the students are not the ones benefiting from this,&quot; Zhang said.

Students will discuss why “anger and resentment” have become prominent in political movements during the past several years and how they link to “white supremacy and white nationalism.”  

UArizona unveils English course on ‘Anger and Resentment in the Wake of Trump’

The University of California Berkeley is looking to hire a <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">&ldquo;Wellness and Environmental Justice Coordinator&rdquo; that will run environmentally-focused student programs such as &quot;meet-ups with Bay Area QT+ and BIPOC climate activists,&quot; &quot;climate healing circles,&quot; &quot;wellness collaboration days,&quot; and more.To be considered for the <a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sfI_Yapdk3QJ:https://www.uzoes.com/us/details/f754529216dbd4454c651dad4038862d+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">job,</a> the applicant must have a &quot;intention of justice and liberation over status quo/reformation,&quot; in addition to a bachelor&#39;s degree and &quot;at least&quot; two years of experience in &quot;sustainability or environmental jobs.&quot; The job is part-time and will pay $23.95-$25.34 per hour. The position is housed in the Student Environmental Resource Center, which is a department within the Dean of Students office. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16879" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Lawmakers propose tapping academics for $94 million &lsquo;environmental justice committee&rsquo;]</a>According to the center&#39;s <a href="https://serc.berkeley.edu/our-values/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">website</a> it provides &quot;environmental and social justice programming and resources to create a space that values the perspectives and narratives of marginalized and underrepresented students.&quot; This particular position&#39;s duties ar4e to be executed while &quot;centering under-served and historically marginalized populations on campus.&quot; <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">&ldquo;We are looking for equity-minded applicants who represent the full diversity of California and who demonstrate a sensitivity to and understanding of the diverse academic, socioeconomic, cultural, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and ethnic backgrounds present in our community,&quot; the job description states. The coordinator will also be tasked with reinforcing student advocacy and &ldquo;fostering wellness and collectivism&quot; and developing &quot;and/or adapt curriculum surrounding wellness and healing in the environmental movement.&quot; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=14836" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: American University caves to environmentalist students&#39; demands]</a> Despite being a part-time job, the coordinator, according to the job description, will be in charge of &quot;Wellness and Environmental Justice Education and Programming,&quot; &quot;Strategic Program Analysis and Assessment,&quot; &quot;Student Group and Civic Engagement Advising Services,&quot; &quot;Community Engagement and Partnership Creation,&quot; &quot;Student Supervision,&quot; and &quot;Budget Management and Administration.&quot; Dan Mogulof, the assistant vice chancellor for executive communications at the University of California Berkeley told Campus Reform that &quot;The position is in the process of being filled,&quot; and said that the position is a temporary, three year contract.<a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/02/07/ocasio-cortez-green-new-deal-oppression/" style="text-decoration:none;"></a>

Successful applicants must have a "intention of justice and liberation over status quo/reformation."

Berkeley is looking for an employee to run 'climate healing circles' with 'BIPOC' activists

JACOBSON: BLM co-founder’s million dollar mansions a prime example of ‘rules for thee…not for me’

The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh tapped a counseling professor to focus upon &ldquo;racial battle fatigue&rdquo; and &ldquo;microaggressions.&rdquo; The university hired <a href="https://uwosh.edu/coehs/people/bowser-ph-d-ncc-teysha/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Teysha Bowser</a> &mdash; who wrote a dissertation called &ldquo;Gendered Racial Microaggressions, Racial Battle Fatigue and Intergenerational Learning with Three Generations of Black Women&rdquo; &mdash; and highlighted her work in an article <a href="https://uwosh.edu/today/94852/new-prof-offers-uwo-professional-counseling-students-perspective-on-racial-battle-fatigue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">posted</a> to the university website. Bowser&rsquo;s work examined &ldquo;coping mechanisms in response to racial battle fatigue&rdquo; &mdash; which Bowser defines as &ldquo;a stress response that people of color experience from constantly dealing with racism and microaggressions in their daily lives.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16884" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16884" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Why don&#39;t Black people ski? One prof blames systemic racism]</a> Bowser will incorporate her research into graduate level courses for professional counseling students, according to UW Oshkosh Today. &ldquo;At first, some Black women might feel like the gendered racial microaggressions they experience are not that bad, but then they build up and gradually make an impact,&rdquo; explained Bowser. &ldquo;Counselors should emphasize the need for Black women to check in with themselves and incorporate more balance in their lives, but they also need to understand the context and barriers that may make it difficult for them to do so.&rdquo; &ldquo;While it is important and necessary for Black women to find time to take a breath and be more attuned with what they are experiencing in body, mind, spirit, they will not be able to fully do so if we as counselors are not able to identify and address what prevents them from doing so,&rdquo; she added.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16880" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16880" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Want to fight racism? According to one university, cancel classes and take a nap.]</a> As National Association of Scholars Director of Research David Randall explained to Campus Reform, &ldquo;counseling is already a heavily politicized field&rdquo; and noted that &quot;therapeutic managerialism&quot; has become the &ldquo;raison d&#39;etre of the American elite.&rdquo; &ldquo;A field dedicated to training &lsquo;counselors&rsquo; will have a vested interest in telling society that they need well-paid counsel,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;The racialized version is particularly noxious in that it says that to be black (or a member of any other &lsquo;oppressed&rsquo; group) is to be so mentally damaged as to require permanent &lsquo;counseling.&rsquo; Because our progressive elites ascribe social status to claims to this sort of &lsquo;mental damage,&rsquo; too many Americans are willing to claim they are sufferers, as a means to acquire social status.&rdquo; &ldquo;It is always difficult to tell how many such status-seekers sincerely believe themselves to be mentally damaged,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;But surely too many habituate themselves to the impaired life of the &lsquo;mentally damaged.&rsquo; The counseling profession, along with the other therapeutic managers of American society, certainly lessen Americans&#39; vigor, cheer, and self-reliance.&rdquo; Campus Reform&nbsp;reached out to Bowser and the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh for comment; this article will be updated accordingly. <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/BenZeisloft?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">@BenZeisloft</a>

The professor will incorporate her research into graduate-level courses so that future counselors can “emphasize the need for Black women to check in with themselves and incorporate more balance in their lives.”

UW Oshkosh hires counseling prof who specializes in 'racial battle fatigue'

VIDEO: Students support court packing... until they hear Democrats used to oppose it

Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota is offering race-based &quot;affinity groups,&quot; including a new &quot;weightlifting for women of color&quot; program, according to a statement from the college&#39;s president.&nbsp;President Suzanne Rivera of Macalester College, a private liberal arts school in St. Paul, Minnesota, provided an &ldquo;<a href="https://www.macalester.edu/president/messages/update-on-equity-and-anti-racism-initiatives/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Update on Equity and Anti-racism Initiatives</a>,&quot; which read, &quot;Macalester continues to do the important work of self-assessment with a focus on identifying opportunities to increase the diversity of students, faculty, and staff on our campus and to foster a culture of inclusion in which each member of this community can thrive and flourish.&rdquo;&nbsp;In the update, Rivera wrote about identity-based affinity groups for Macalester&rsquo;s very diverse staff. Rivera noted, &ldquo;Identity-based affinity groups are being established to provide support for underrepresented employees at Macalester. Information about these spaces will be posted on the Employment Services website by the end of the week.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17040" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: &#39;The endpoint of critical race theory&#39;: Columbia University faces backlash for segregated graduations]</a>Rivera continued on to note that &ldquo;50% of our full-time staff hires identified as being a part of a minoritized group,&rdquo; the past year at Macalester collegeIn addition, Macalester College is creating a new Vice President position &ldquo;to lead the college in the fostering of inclusive excellence in learning and teaching, institutional equity, and community flourishing.&rdquo;In the update provided, a number of priorities are outlined, including &ldquo;weightlifting for women of color,&quot; specialization of &ldquo;mental health for &nbsp;LGBTQIA+&rdquo; and an &ldquo;Equity purchasing Initiative,&quot; which &quot;provides resources to help identify minority-owned businesses and women-owned businesses.&quot;&nbsp;Rivera wrote that, &ldquo; Business Services announced details of our new Equity Purchasing Initiative. This initiative helps us all to consider the ways and the places we spend the college&rsquo;s money.&rdquo; Rivera also wrote that&ldquo; we have been engaged in a search for an additional full-time mental health counselor, with expertise in mental health care for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16955" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: &#39;Yoga for QTPOC Folx&#39;: Despite segregated rock climbing backlash, Cornell offers more identity-specific classes]</a>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve said before that there is still much work to be done as we advance our institutional commitments to equity and inclusion. I&rsquo;m excited to be engaging with so many of you in this important work,&quot; Rivera concluded.&nbsp;Macalester College did not respond to&nbsp;Campus Reform&#39;s request for comment in time for publication.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/hannahkeller77" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@hannahkeller77</a>

The announcement from the college's president is the latest in a nationwide trend toward racially segregated spaces.

Macalester College offers 'weightlifting for women of color'

Students and alumni want a statue of former NFL quarterback Colin Kapernick installed at the University of Nevada-Reno.Kaepernick &mdash; who graduated in 2011 and led the school&rsquo;s football team to record victories &mdash; gained national notoriety after kneeling during the national anthem at a San Francisco 49ers football game.Today, Kaepernick focuses much of his efforts on racial activism work. As Campus Reform recently reported, Kaepernick&rsquo;s organization sponsored a series of essays about police reform and racism. One of the writings alleged that to &ldquo;reform the police&rdquo; is to &ldquo;reward the police&rdquo; while they &ldquo;brutalize and kill.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16138" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Colin Kaepernick endorsed Princeton prof: Police are &lsquo;inherently predatory and violent&#39;]</a>A Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/638601343411903" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">group</a> called UNR Alumni Campaign for Statue of Kaepernick Kneeling in Mackay Stadium &mdash; which launched following the death of George Floyd and which boasted 1,500 members as of the time of publication &mdash; said that creating the statue &ldquo;would make a very powerful statement to future students, especially Black ones.&rdquo;&ldquo;The university states that it supports inclusion and diversity. Let&rsquo;s see. Does UNR want to be on the correct side of history, or not?&rdquo; reads the group&rsquo;s description.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16609" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Harvard hires Obama-connected firm for police review. The result is unsurprising.]</a>Corresponding with alumni, the Associated Students of the University of Nevada proposed a resolution to install a statue of Kaepernick.Listing Kaepernick&rsquo;s activism credentials, the <a href="http://de5u0yfu98nbk.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/15204535/88-117_S.Res_SupportKaepernickStatue.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">resolution</a> states that &ldquo;having a statute of Colin Kaepernick will be representing Black students at the University of Nevada, Reno as well as be representative of social justice movements in response to deep-rooted disenfranchisement of the Black community.&rdquo;UNR spokesperson Kerri Garcia Hendricks told Campus Reform that the president&rsquo;s office is currently reviewing the student government&rsquo;s resolution, which passed in December.&ldquo;We are proud of all of our alumni, Colin Kaepernick being one of the most recognizable,&rdquo; she explained. &ldquo;We have had students, faculty and alumni talk about how we could recognize the social justice conversation Colin started in this county by taking a knee.&rdquo;&quot;President Sandoval is considering the best way to recognize Colin, looking at the options that are available, such as many of the University&rsquo;s prestigious awards that may be appropriate, such as honorary degrees, Distinguished Nevadan awards and the President&rsquo;s Medal,&rdquo; she added.Campus Reform reached out to the University of Nevada-Reno for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

The university has not yet addressed the recommendation, but left the door open to granting Kaepernick other forms of accolade.

Students and alumni want statue of Colin Kaepernick on campus

A University of Florida professor gave students a &quot;Diversity Bingo&quot; extra credit assignment, which called for students to find people of various ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations.The course, titled Problem Solving with Computer Software, is a general requirement course for all business majors at the University of Florida. &quot;Diversity Bingo&quot; was offered to students in the class as an extra credit assignment.&nbsp;The assignment appears within a chapter dedicated to problem-solving specify, using groups and critical thinking strategies. Within this chapter students learned about Problem Definition, Idea Generation, and Decision making. The professor also included this assignment as being relevant to the material. <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=16934" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Macalester College student gov approves &lsquo;care packages&#39; with &#39;priority&#39; for Black students]</a>Students were informed of the opportunity to complete the extra credit Diversity Bingo assignment in an online announcement, which read, &ldquo;we are talking about diversity and how a diverse team would be more effective when addressing the complexity and different challenges that are inherent to open-ended problems.&rdquo; Giving instructions for students to &ldquo;Look for other students who can fit into the description.&rdquo;Students were encouraged to find others who fit into categories, including &quot;a person who is gay, lesbian, or bisexual,&quot; &quot;a person with special needs,&quot; and &quot;has celebrated &#39;Ramadan.&#39;&quot;&nbsp;Students could also find others who fit into categories such as those who have had their &ldquo;last name mispronounced,&rdquo; &quot;is a first or second-generation immigrant to the U.S.,&quot; or &quot;has Black African Ancestry.&quot;&nbsp;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=16901" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Five top law schools partner with alumni to create &#39;Social Justice Legal Foundation&#39;]</a><a href="https://www.eng.ufl.edu/eed/faculty-staff/john-mendoza-garcia/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">John Mendoza-Garcia</a> is the professor who teaches the class. Within the syllabus of his computer class, students can see a picture of the Black Lives Matter logo. Mendoza-Garcia writes that he is aware of the &ldquo;systemic racism that have [sic] been present in our society.&quot;Mendoza-Garcia also mentions in his syllabus that he has become &ldquo;anti-racist&rdquo; and invites students &ldquo;to be anti-racist as well.&rdquo; Additionally, he mentions &ldquo;if you are Black and you are reading this syllabus, please remember that you matter, and your success in this class matters to me.&rdquo;&nbsp;UF student Zachary Forbes told Campus Reform he thinks the assignment &ldquo;teaches the wrong message about problem-solving.Forbes believes that students &ldquo;should look for people with the experience and expertise for the problem at hand,&quot; that the physical characteristics or background &ldquo;shouldn&rsquo;t determine whether you reach out to them or not.&rdquo; Students should be taught to &ldquo;stand out within their field based on their work and devotion to the subject,&quot; Forbes said.&nbsp;Forbes identifies as being from a Portuguese family that moved to Massachusetts, but he would &ldquo;want to be hired as a manager or accountant based on the fact that I&rsquo;m damn good at it, not based on the fact that I look more brown than my peers.&rdquo;Campus Reform reached out to the professor for comment, who informed this correspondent &quot;it is best if you do not write a story about an assignment in the CGS2531 class while you are one of the students in that class,&quot; adding &quot;I can consider writing a note again after the class is over.&quot;Asked to clarify that statement, the professor elaborated that &quot;it is because you are a student in my class, and there is a conflict because of that asymmetric relationship.&quot;&quot;Any comment you or any student has regarding an assignment in my course or any UF course should be provided to the instructor through teaching evaluations. Such evaluations are only accessible to instructors after we have submitted final grades to the registrar. This post-course access to students&rsquo; comments about the class is because of the asymmetric relationship students and instructors have,&quot; Mendoza-Garcia said.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ajmunguia23" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@ajmunguia23</a>

The assignment instructs students to find peers with certain race and ethnicity-based attributes. 

EXCLUSIVE: 'Anti-racist' prof with BLM syllabus offers 'Diversity Bingo' extra credit

At the University of Michigan, a dean under fire for &quot;offensive characterization&quot; of Asians has issued an apology calling himself &ldquo;part of the problem.&rdquo;Michigan Law Dean <a href="https://www.law.umich.edu/dean/pages/default.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mark West</a> has published several books on Japanese culture, including Secrets, Sex and Spectacle: The Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States and&nbsp;Lovesick Japan: Sex, Marriage, Romance, Law. After pushback over the book covers, the dean <a href="https://abovethelaw.com/2021/03/mich-dean-books/2/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announced</a> in an email to students that the covers will be redesigned.Courtney Liss, a third-year University of Michigan law student, shared tweets on March 17 about the <a href="https://twitter.com/CourtneyLiss/status/1372291665294200835?s=20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">book covers</a> and her March 16 email to the college&rsquo;s deans, calling on them to <a href="https://twitter.com/CourtneyLiss/status/1372291672822972418?s=20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">release a statement</a> about &ldquo;anti-Asian xenophobia and racist attacks.&rdquo;&nbsp;Liss has been <a href="https://twitter.com/CourtneyLiss/status/1373449590259789825" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">rallying</a> for the book covers to changed for three years.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17135" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Prof claimed on class assignment that Trump supported Japanese internment camps, student alleges. Here&#39;s what he actually said.]</a>A <a href="https://twitter.com/CourtneyLiss/status/1372378200978898945?s=20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a> released by West on March 17 discussed inequalities, the Atlanta shooting, calling on the community to &ldquo;eliminate anti-Asian sentiment and all aspects of racism.&rdquo;&nbsp;Days later, the dean shared with UM law students how his books on Japanese culture have &ldquo;contributed to a narrative that promotes a two-dimensional and offensive characterization of people, and especially women.&rdquo; The <a href="https://abovethelaw.com/2021/03/mich-dean-books/2/?rf=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">email</a>, published by Above The Law, states that the dean initially saw the covers as &ldquo;edgy,&rdquo; but began changing the book covers in spring 2020.&nbsp;&ldquo;We as an institution have been grappling with the structural racism in American life and with our own role in addressing it...I have been reflecting on choices I have made that are, quite simply, part of the problem,&rdquo; Dean West said in the email.West shared that he found himself &ldquo;increasingly uncomfortable&rdquo; with the imagery and believed the books would have gone out of print sooner. The dean is now working with the publishers to completely change the covers on his books and on the publisher&rsquo;s website.<a href="https://campusreform.org/?id=16878" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Want more info on UMich China ties? That will cost you $1,200.]</a>&ldquo;I am glad to see Dean West is recognizing the racist and sexist stereotypes that his book covers portrayed and working to change the book covers,&rdquo; Liss told Campus Reform. &ldquo;This is a great step in creating a more equitable law school and I hope to see Dean West and the rest of the administration continue to confront these issues as they arise.&rdquo;Campus Reform reached out to West and the university for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/SergeiKelley?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@SergeiKelley</a>

A UM law student has been campaigning for the college to release a statement on anti-Asian racism. 

'#StopAsianHate': UMich dean caves to left, changes book covers amid claims of racism

An anonymous Instagram account claimed that Black students at Adelphi University received lynching threats. Although the university sent two warnings to the student body, local police found no evidence of hate crime threats.Black at AU &mdash; an account that seeks to &ldquo;discuss the institutional racism at Adelphi university&rdquo; &mdash; sounded the alarm that students had been targeted with racially motivated threats.&ldquo;ALERT!! Students are threatening to lynch Black students in retaliation to this page,&rdquo; read the post. &ldquo;Students addresses have been posted. Be safe.&rdquo;The students tagged NPR, CNN, and racial activist Shaun King in the post.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17040" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: &#39;The endpoint of critical race theory&#39;: Columbia University faces backlash for segregated graduations]</a>In response to the anonymous post &mdash; which included no corroborating evidence &mdash; the school sent a statement to the student body.&ldquo;There have been recent incidents of students using racial slurs, hateful comments, and reported threats of violence and retaliation on social media &mdash; and sadly, this is not the first time these issues have occurred,&rdquo;<a href="https://www.adelphi.edu/news/a-joint-statement-from-faculty-and-administration/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;said</a> Adelphi President Christine Riordan. &ldquo;To those among us who have been targeted, directly and indirectly, we hate that this has happened to you, and we hate that we have not yet found a way to stop it.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17031" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: &#39;Woke&#39; books authored by &#39;anti-racist&#39; profs infiltrate US Navy reading list]</a>&ldquo;Ignorance, racism, hate and violence hold no place in the Adelphi community, yet those things keep happening here,&rdquo; continued the communication. &ldquo;We know there is no place at Adelphi for inexcusable messages of white supremacy and anti-Blackness, but such racist attacks are a stark reminder of the work we need to do to combat systemic inequality and ongoing racism in our very own community.&rdquo;Adelphi University Strategic Communications Director Todd Wilson directed Campus Reform toward another statement published the following day.The second statement admitted that public safety and local police officers &ldquo;have continued to ask for direct evidence of threats from those who have received them firsthand and none have been submitted for investigation.&rdquo;&nbsp;Nevertheless, the university enlisted &ldquo;an external cyber/digital forensic firm to add to the police investigations.&rdquo;&quot;After an investigation this week by public safety and the Garden City police, we do not currently have any substantiated claims or specific examples of threats of racially motivated violence or harm to our community members. We do not have any names of people perpetuating these crimes,&quot; the university said in a statement.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

The university sent two communications to the student body, even though local police found no evidence of hate crime threats.

University admin sounds alarm over anonymously reported hate crimes. There's just one problem.

The search is on for a new chief diversity officer at the University of Florida.&nbsp;The individual who previously held that position was paid $288,400 in 2019 alone, according to UF&#39;s campus newspaper <a href="https://www.alligator.org/article/2021/03/chief-diversity-officer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Alligator</a>. Asked how much the next CDO would make, UF spokesperson Hessy Fernandez told Campus Reform, &quot;The salary to be offered to our next CDO will be competitive and commensurate with education and experience.&quot; In 2017,<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9428" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;Campus Reform reported</a> that the average salary of diversity officers at that time was a whopping $175,088.&nbsp;The University of Florida&#39;s Chief Diversity Officer position is charged with various duties, including oversight of &ldquo;<a href="https://news.ufl.edu/2020/07/racial-justice-research-fund-release/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">racial justice grants</a>.&quot; The position was <a href="https://www.alligator.org/article/2018/05/uf-hires-first-ever-chief-diversity-officer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">created</a> in 2018, with the seat first being filled by Antonio Farias who, in 2018, had stated after some controversial events at the university that they represent &ldquo;something systemic in the culture that needs to be addressed.&rdquo; Farias added that in the U.S. there is a &ldquo;very checkered history when it comes to questions of exclusion and inclusion.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17044" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Students support boycotting Panda Express for &#39;cultural appropriation&#39;]</a>Farias also oversaw &ldquo;the foundation of an inclusive culture,&rdquo; where the university trained more than 300 faculty and staff in what they call &ldquo;Crucial Conversations.&rdquo;The chief diversity officer also<a href="https://news.ufl.edu/2020/07/racial-justice-research-fund-release/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;oversees&nbsp;</a>the &ldquo;Racial Justice Research Fund.&rdquo; The goal of this fund is to &ldquo;inform understanding of the Black experience, racial justice, diversity, equity and inclusion on campus and beyond.&rdquo;&nbsp;Grants distributed from this fund range from as low as $15,000 to as much as $75,000.&nbsp;For years, research has shown these diversity head positions do <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=11311" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">very little</a> in terms of racial equality. Universities over the years have spent more money on the problem, which has <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=13471" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">shown</a> to neither increase diversity amongst the staff, nor the <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=13290" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">student body</a>.&nbsp;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17040" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: &#39;The endpoint of critical race theory&#39;: Columbia University faces backlash for segregated graduations]</a>While these programs have <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=11347" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">cost millions</a> of dollars, universities continue to accept billions in <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=14787" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">federal funds</a>.Zachary Forbes is a student at the University of Florida who told Campus Reform that &ldquo;universities are like mini versions of actual governments, they invent fake problems and then throw money at those fake problems in order to make it look like they&rsquo;re doing something productive.&rdquo;Forbes further stated that admission rates for each demographic are bound to change year to year and that &ldquo;UF thinks that&rsquo;s an excuse to pay someone $300,000 to complain about it.&quot;Forbes further pointed out that if the University would like to change admissions rates, it should &quot;remember that they chose to go completely online last year and still charged the same tuition to sit alone in our rooms behind a screen.&quot;&nbsp;Forbes added that the &quot;lower-income households don&rsquo;t want to throw away money for a useless year of college, so you see a bigger percentage of upper-middle-class students with stable family income.&quot;Forbes ultimately concluded that &quot;the COVID policies are at fault, but UF would never admit that cause they need to pander to COVID fear too.&quot;&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ajmunguia23" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@ajmunguia23</a>

However, despite the lucrative pay, studies have shown that initiatives led by people in such positions have done little to increase diversity.

UF 'Chief Diversity Officer' search continues, despite studies showing it's a waste

Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas threatened to discipline a student journalist attempting to carry out basic inquiries. The university backtracked after the student sued in response and federal officials intervened.According to a <a href="https://d28htnjz2elwuj.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/02094158/Doc.-1_Nally-v.-Graham_Complaint.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">suit</a> filed in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, Jared Nally &mdash; editor-in-chief of The Indian Leader &mdash; the university &ldquo;is violating the First Amendment by retaliating against them for engaging in protected expression and journalistic activities and by enforcing a sweeping and vague policy on campus expression that was applied to Nally to impose an unconstitutional prior restraint.&rdquo;The suit stated that Haskell President Ronald Graham issued Nally a &ldquo;directive&rdquo; demanding that he avoid criticizing university officials or &ldquo;requesting information from government agencies while identifying himself as a student journalist.&rdquo; Referring to the school&rsquo;s code of conduct, Graham also &ldquo;threatened disciplinary action if Nally failed to show Haskell officials &lsquo;appropriate respect&rsquo; by continuing to engage in these protected activities.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16431" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: MSNBC host Joy Reid lands journalism teaching gig]</a>As detailed in a <a href="https://d28htnjz2elwuj.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/26122201/FIRE-Letter-to-Haskell-Indian-Nations-University-October-26-20201.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">letter</a> sent to administrators by the Native American Journalists Association, the Student Press Law Center, and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Nally provoked Graham&rsquo;s directive by asking the local police department for confirmation of the death of a prominent community member&rsquo;s death so that he could write a death notice.&ldquo;Your &lsquo;directive&rsquo; to Nally is an appalling and unequivocal departure from the First Amendment, betraying willful blindness to the basic concepts of constitutional rights,&rdquo; read the letter.Haskell withheld $10,000 in the newspaper&rsquo;s funding &ldquo;without any notice or explanation.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16999" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Top scientific journal pushes diversity litmus test for would-be authors]</a>The lawsuit also mentioned that three decades ago, the same district court ruled in favor of student leadership of The Indian Review after the school temporarily halted publication &ldquo;in retaliation for critical coverage.&rdquo;&ldquo;Haskell is making it very clear that they put institutional reputation above student rights,&rdquo; said FIRE attorney Katlyn Patton in a <a href="https://www.thefire.org/lawsuit-student-reporter-sues-university-president-for-forbidding-journalism/?utm_source=FIRE_Update&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Update&show_popup=false" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">press release</a>. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not only defending Jared&rsquo;s constitutional rights, but the rights of all Haskell students, and student reporters across the country. In doing so, we&rsquo;re showing public institutions that the First Amendment is non-negotiable.&rdquo;United States Bureau of Indian Education spokeswoman Klarissa Jensen told Campus Reform that the department &ldquo;does not comment on matters in active litigation.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16944" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: St. Joseph&rsquo;s prof placed on paid leave after criticizing reparations]</a>Days after Nally&rsquo;s lawsuit became national news, Graham issued another directive silencing Haskell employee criticism of his administration.The <a href="https://d28htnjz2elwuj.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/25092506/Haskell-Indian-Nations-University-Directive-to-Employees-March-11-2021.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">directive</a> said that Graham had faced &ldquo;detractors&rdquo; since he assumed the role of university president, and told &ldquo;employees, supervisors, and managers&rdquo; that they are &ldquo;always expected to be professional and conduct themselves in a manner that reflects positively&rdquo; on the school.&ldquo;Derogatory opinions regarding coworkers, colleagues, and supervisors or administration is not protected under &lsquo;academic freedom&rsquo; and is not consistent with the standards of conduct expected of all Federal employees,&rdquo; it read.&quot;Now Haskell has chosen to open another front in its war on free expression,&rdquo; FIRE program officer Lindsie Rank told Campus Reform. &ldquo;Haskell administrators took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. I implore the university to end its betrayal of that oath and respect people&rsquo;s basic rights.&rdquo;In early April, however, Graham backtracked on his administration&rsquo;s speech policies after the Bureau of Indian Education <a href="https://www.thefire.org/fire-2-haskell-0-as-university-rescinds-misguided-directives-muzzling-faculty-speech/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">intervened</a>.&ldquo;Haskell&rsquo;s latest directives sent a clear message to faculty: The administration is watching and is prepared to violate the Constitution to protect its reputation,&rdquo; said Rank. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re relieved that the BIE finally stepped in to preserve faculty rights, but the Haskell administration has repeatedly tried to suppress dissent, and the BIE &mdash; which operates the university &mdash; should have acted long ago to end the pattern of rights violations endemic to Haskell.&rdquo;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

The administration has since backtracked on its speech policies.

This Kansas student is suing his university for over alleged First Amendment violations

Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam <a href="https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/all-releases/2021/march/headline-893995-en.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">amended</a> a previous executive order to ease up on COVID-19 restrictions, effective on April 1, allowing up to 50 people to gather for indoor events and up to 100 people to gather for outdoor events. However, Virginia Polytechnic Institute announced it would not follow these guidelines but maintain previous restrictions that limit indoor gathering to 10 people and outdoor gatherings to 50 people.&nbsp;Alyssa Jones, president of the Turning Point USA chapter at Virginia Tech, contacted her school following Northam&#39;s announcement that he would ease COVID-19 restrictions.&nbsp;In a March 23 email obtained by Campus Reform, Student Engagement and Campus Life told Jones that &ldquo;after April 1st groups are permitted to have up to 50 people in attendance for indoor events.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16688" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Virginia Tech president admits US has lost trust in overly politicized higher ed]</a>Then, on March 24, one day after Jones&#39; inquiry, Virginia Tech<a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2021/03/unirel-hughes-wilson-statement-032.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;announced&nbsp;</a>that it would not adopt Northam&rsquo;s new guidelines. &ldquo;On-campus gatherings outdoors must be 50 people or less, indoor gatherings must be 10 people or less,&rdquo; stated the school&rsquo;s announcement.&nbsp;the university&#39;s decision to maintain previous restrictions was in line with that of the city of Blacksburg, which <a href="https://www.wfxrtv.com/news/local-news/new-river-valley-local-news/gathering-limits-to-remain-in-the-town-of-blacksburg-virginia-tech/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">decided</a> shortly after the governor&rsquo;s announcements that it would maintain a 50 person limit for both indoor and outdoor events.On March 25, the school reached out to Jones and informed her that it had previously given her &ldquo;misinformation.&quot; Jones then reached out to <a href="https://dsaleadership.dsa.vt.edu/index/Kristen_Abell.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kristen Abell</a>, Interim Director of Communications, to inquire about students attending events of 50 people or more outside of campus and the town of Blacksburg.On March 26, Abell told Jones that students are allowed to attend events of any capacity &ldquo;as long as whatever gathering you&rsquo;re attending is following the guidelines for that area. Our restrictions are just limited to the Blacksburg/campus area.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16018" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Virginia Tech. prof says phrase &#39;American people&#39; is racist, so is beer]</a>Virginia Tech Event Services also responded to Jones, stating in an email obtained by Campus Reform that &ldquo;you are welcome to host your event outside of Virginia Tech&rsquo;s Campus following the Blacksburg ordinance of 50 people capacity limit indoors and outdoors.&rdquo;The 10 person limit for in-person events on campus has been in place since <a href="https://campuslife.vt.edu/secl_services/event_planning/resources.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">November 16</a>, in accordance with the governor&rsquo;s previous order.&nbsp;Ryan Glennon, Regional Field Coordinator for Campus Reform&#39;s parent organization the Leadership Institute, explained that the event in question is supposed to be a speaker event put on by the TPUSA chapter as well as the Network of Enlightened Women chapter.&nbsp;Glennon reached out to Lorraine Spaulding, paralegal for the town of Blacksburg, who confirmed that the town&rsquo;s ordinance allows for a 50 person capacity at events both indoors and outdoors. While Virginia Tech has increased the number of people allowed at outdoor events, <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2021/03/unirel-hughes-wilson-statement-032.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">it has not increased</a> the limit on indoor events since November.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17062" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Athletes&#39; privilege: Virginia colleges bend COVID-19 rules for March Madness players]</a>Laken Land, president of the Network of Enlightened Women at Virginia Tech, told Campus Reform &ldquo;I called Event Services at Virginia Tech to inquire about these changes and see how they would affect student organization activities on campus.&rdquo;Land explained that she &ldquo;called on March 24,&rdquo; and told the school that she is &ldquo;the president of the Network of Enlightened Women&rdquo; and &ldquo;was interested in reserving an outdoor space on campus for a speaker event in mid to late April.&rdquo; The school informed Land that &ldquo;Virginia Tech was going by the new policy changes and would allow [the] organization to have a 100 person gathering outdoors on campus.&rdquo;&ldquo;Two days later I was informed by a fellow conservative organization leader that Virginia Tech was choosing to go against the new guidelines and had reversed their social gathering numbers back to 10 indoors and 50 outdoors.&rdquo; Land continued, &ldquo;Irregardless of affiliation, why is the university not following guidelines set forth by the CDC, the state of Virginia, and the town of Blacksburg?&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16888" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Virginia Tech uses federal COVID aid money to refund students $100]</a>Alyssa Jones explained to Campus Reform that &ldquo;Virginia Tech is making it seem like they are following the Blacksburg town ordinance&rdquo; but added that this is &ldquo;misleading to students&rdquo; because the university actually has different guidelines.&nbsp;&ldquo;Virginia Tech has received a lot of backlash from the community for their COVID-19 policies,&rdquo; she stated, referencing an Instagram post from the school that received over 300 comments which were almost all negative.A March 2 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CL8DHsSnqYf/?igshid=11cjori81g9sj" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram post</a> from Virginia Tech announced a virtual commencement ceremony for spring 2021 graduates. Members of the university community were not satisfied with the school&rsquo;s decision.&nbsp;One student commented, &ldquo;VT saying &lsquo;invent the future&rsquo; but they can&rsquo;t even figure out how to safely space out small masked groups of students in their many large outdoor spaces.&rdquo; Hundreds of other comments piled on expressing the same negative emotions.VT then<a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2021/03/unirel-commencement-ceremonies.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;announced</a> on March 18 that it would be hosting &ldquo;multiple in-person commencement ceremonies in Lane Stadium.&rdquo;&nbsp;According to the CDC&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/large-events/considerations-for-events-gatherings.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">guidelines</a>, &ldquo;the size of the event should be determined based on whether attendees from different households can stay at least 6 feet (2 arms length)&rdquo; apart.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16823" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Virginia bill would create reparations scholarships]</a>Virginia Tech has multiple <a href="https://graduatelifecenter.vt.edu/space-reservations/descriptions.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">venues</a> available to host events, including a 550-seat auditorium and a &ldquo;4,000+ square-foot&rdquo; multipurpose room. According to a &ldquo;space calculator,&rdquo; if students used the multipurpose room they would be able to maintain 6 feet of social distancing with <a href="https://www.banquettablespro.com/social-distancing-room-space-calculator" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">111 guests</a> in attendance.Tim Sands, President of Virginia Tech, previously <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/03/president-covid-march17-message.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">stated</a> that &ldquo;we will continue to follow guidance from state and national health officials and the governor&rsquo;s office, adapting and updating our plan as needed.&rdquo;&nbsp; The university is also planning to return to fully <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2021/03/unirel-fall-2021-plans.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">in-person</a> learning during the next school year.&nbsp;Campus Reform reached out to Sands for comment but he did not respond to the request.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/abbyystreetman" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@abbyystreetman</a>

However, the university announced that it would not be enforcing the governor's new order after informing the TPUSA chapter president that she was allowed to host an event with up to 50 people. 

Virginia Tech claims to follow the science on COVID...but it does just the opposite

<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">On Sunday, Assistant History Professor at the University of Massachusetts Asheesh Kapur Siddique, sent out a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/AsheeshKSi/status/1381247227931283457" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">tweet</a><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&nbsp;claiming that colleges have &quot;too many conservatives&quot; on campus. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The problem with academia today is that it has too many conservatives. They run the university. They sit in admin &amp; on university boards enforcing manufactured austerity, combating unionization, &amp; casualizing most of the professoriate.&mdash; AKS (@AsheeshKSi) <a href="https://twitter.com/AsheeshKSi/status/1381247227931283457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&ldquo;The problem with academia today is that it has too many conservatives. They run the university. They sit in admin &amp; on university boards enforcing manufactured austerity, combating unionization, &amp; casualizing most of the professoriate,&rdquo; <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Siddique wrote on Twitter. <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Campus Reform&nbsp;<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">contacted <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Siddique about this claim. When presented with a study published by the<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/partisan-registration-and-contributions-of-faculty-in-flagship-colleges" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">National Association of Scholars</a><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&nbsp;<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">showing that college professors donate to Democrats ninety-five times more than to Republicans, <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Siddique insisted this was not relevant.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16060" style="text-decoration:none;"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16060" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">[RELATED: Nearly 99% of College Board employees&#39; political donations go to Democrats]</a> <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&ldquo;Partisan political affiliation has nothing to do with the teaching or research work that goes on in universities,&rdquo;<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&nbsp;<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Siddique&nbsp;said in response to the study.&nbsp; <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">After<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&nbsp;Campus Reform<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&nbsp;inquired to Siddique about <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16945" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Critical Race Theory</a> and the <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16038" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">1619 Project</a><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&nbsp;being taught in college courses, he responded by urging people to, &ldquo;Look at any business school or econ department, where free market / small government orthodoxy reigns.&rdquo; Siddique then&nbsp;<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">referenced a 2018 article from<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&nbsp;<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/148368/ideology-business-school" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">The New Republic</a><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&nbsp;that criticizes American MBA programs for teaching American economics, referring to them as, &ldquo;Ideological institutions committed to a strict blend of social liberalism and economic conservatism.&rdquo; <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Campus Reform&nbsp;<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16084" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">reported</a><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&nbsp;on hundreds of business school professors who endorsed President Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15660" style="text-decoration:none;"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15660" style="text-decoration:none;"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15660" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:#ffffff;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">[RELATED: Students at Emory business orientation asked to put race next to Zoom names]</a> <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">When asked if he believed this is representative of college culture and academia as a whole, Siddique simply replied, &ldquo;Yes&rdquo;. <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Nicole Neily, President of<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&nbsp;<a href="https://speechfirst.org/" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Speech First</a><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">, criticized Siddique for his factually &quot;incorrect&quot; premise, citing a <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/11/08/college-administrators-are-more-liberal-other-groups-including-faculty-members" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">study</a> showing that university administrators, on average, lean more left than their professors. <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&quot;<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Dr. Siddique&#39;s factual premise is incorrect; Sarah Lawrence professor Samuel Abrams the ideological composition of university administrators several years ago, and found that they actually lean farther left than even university professors,&quot; Neily told Campus Reform. <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Neily then encouraged Siddique to &quot;welcome&quot; different perspectives. <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">&quot;Intellectual diversity is an essential component of higher education; there&#39;s a reason that studies are peer-reviewed, and dissertations are defended before committees. Uniformity of thought, opinion, and background can lead to devastating blind spots and groupthink - so scholars who are committed to high-quality scholarship should welcome different perspectives.&quot; <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Campus Reform&nbsp;<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">contacted UMass for comment. The article will be updated accordingly. <span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/_addisonsmith1" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Lora,serif;color:#cc0000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">@_addisonsmith1&nbsp;</a>

A UMass history professor released a tweet in which he claimed that academia has ‘too many conservatives’ 

Prof: ‘The problem with academia today is that it has too many conservatives’

Mainstream media outlets are citing a San Francisco State University project to prove a rise in anti-Asian hate. For a variety of reasons, however, the project offers no meaningful statistical insights.<a href="https://stopaapihate.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://stopaapihate.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://stopaapihate.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Stop AAPI Hate</a> &mdash; an initiative of the Asian Pacific Policy &amp; Planning Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and San Francisco State University &mdash; began gathering reports of anti-Asian hate crimes in March of 2020. Mainstream media outlets are citing the report as evidence of a surge in anti-Asian racism since the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020 -- but the report offers no parallel data before that date, so it simply cannot substantiate such a claim. The project&rsquo;s site allows visitors to self-report incidents of alleged racism and discrimination. Although the site permits users to upload files and links to substantiate allegations, it is possible to submit a report with no accompanying evidence. &ldquo;Do you think specific parts of your identity were targeted in this incident?&rdquo; asked one question on the report form.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17095" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17095" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17095" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Ivy League schools accused of anti-Asian discrimination condemn anti-Asian hate]</a> The group&rsquo;s first annual <a href="https://secureservercdn.net/104.238.69.231/a1w.90d.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/210312-Stop-AAPI-Hate-National-Report-.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">report</a> covers 3,795 incidents recorded by the site between March 2020 and February 2021. Of these incidents, the vast majority &mdash; 68.1 percent &mdash; involved verbal harassment or name calling. The self-reported findings also indicate significant skews in terms of gender and age that could call the project&rsquo;s statistical significance into question. Over two-thirds of respondents were female, and individuals above the age of 45 represented only 21 percent of the reports. However, individuals older than 45 years <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/241488/population-of-the-us-by-sex-and-age/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">represent&nbsp;</a>nearly 65 percent of the United States population.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17105" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17105" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17105" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: NY Times column: &#39;Stop vilifying China&rsquo;s Confucius Institutes.&rsquo; Chinese state media: &lsquo;good article.&rsquo;]</a> In an article for <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/539083-attacks-on-elderly-asian-americans-cause-advocates-to-stand" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Hill</a>, one journalist reported that Stop AAPI Hate &ldquo;received a shocking number of firsthand reports of anti-Asian hate across 47 states and Washington, D.C. &mdash; more than 2,800 of them.&rdquo; An article for <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/02/anti-asian-attacks-san-francisco-bay-area-racism-covid.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Slate</a> cited the project to claim that &ldquo;instances of violence and discrimination against Asian Americans were prevalent through 2020 as the coronavirus overtook the U.S.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/asian-american-violence-discrimination-house-judiciary-hearing-watch-live-stream-today-2021-03-18/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/asian-american-violence-discrimination-house-judiciary-hearing-watch-live-stream-today-2021-03-18/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/asian-american-violence-discrimination-house-judiciary-hearing-watch-live-stream-today-2021-03-18/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CBS News</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/25-percent-asian-american-youths-racist-bullying-n1240380" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NBC News</a>, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/12/asian-hate-incidents-covid-19-lunar-new-year/4447037001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">USA Today</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/17/opinions/asian-hate-crimes-us-avlon/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a>, the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-16/anti-asian-hate-pandemic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LA Times</a>, <a href="https://www.oprahmag.com/life/a33432883/racist-attacks-asian-americans-coronavirus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Oprah Magazine</a>, and <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/we-have-been-through-this-before-why-anti-asian-hate-crimes-are-rising-amid-coronavirus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">PBS</a> also cited the project in reports, many of which claimed the existence of a &quot;rise&quot; in &quot;crimes&quot; or &quot;attacks. National Association of Scholars Director of Research David Randall referred Campus Reform to his <a href="https://www.nas.org/storage/app/media/Reports/Social%20Justice%20Education%20in%20America/NAS_Social%20Justice_Report-Web.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">report</a> on San Francisco State University&rsquo;s extensive emphasis upon social justice education. &ldquo;The entire point of social justice education is to subordinate academic research to progressive activism &mdash; and producing this sort of website, intended to gather factitious data to support progressive policy, is exactly what they now think is their academic mission,&rdquo; Randall explained to Campus Reform. &ldquo;Certainly real academics would care more about best existing practices for collecting and reporting data, and seek to provide information to be used for any policy response whatsoever.&rdquo; &ldquo;All citizens, especially including journalists, should undertake due diligence to determine whether a supposedly neutral source of data is really the product of progressive activism, especially that disseminated via the camouflage of social justice education,&rdquo; he added. Campus Reform reached out to Stop AAPI Hate for comment; this article will be updated accordingly. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

The project is based on self-reported data and offers no meaningful statistical insights.

Mainstream media outlets cite unscientific SFSU project to prove rise in anti-Asian crimes

Several professors told Campus Reform that they are required to direct all requests for comment to White House spokesman Andrew Bates.

Biden’s court packing committee contains an army of profs open to altering Supreme Court

Universities are announcing that they will require the COVID-19 vaccine for returning students. &ldquo;More than 90 million U.S. residents have safely received one or more doses of a currently approved COVID-19 vaccine,&rdquo; explained Cornell University President Martha Pollack in a <a href="https://statements.cornell.edu/2021/20210402-vaccination-fall-instruction.cfm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement,</a> &ldquo;and recent data indicate that these vaccines not only protect those inoculated from serious infection, but also are protective for asymptomatic infection and the risk of transmission of virus to others.&rdquo; Therefore, Cornell &ldquo;intends to require vaccination for students&rdquo; returning to one of its campuses in the fall.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16344" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16344" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16344" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Cornell offers &#39;person of color&#39; exemption for flu vaccine requirement]</a> &ldquo;Medical and religious exemptions will be accommodated, but the expectation will be that our campuses and classrooms will overwhelmingly consist of vaccinated individuals, greatly reducing the risk of infection for all,&rdquo; continued Pollack. The school also unveiled a &ldquo;COVID-19 Proof of Vaccination&rdquo; tool &mdash; a form that all students, faculty, and staff will be required to complete beginning on April 15. Brown University will likewise <a href="https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-04-06/fall-2021" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mandate</a> &ldquo;COVID-19 vaccines for all undergraduate, graduate and medical students who will engage in in-person instruction.&rdquo; Exemptions &ldquo;will be granted to students, and reasonable accommodations will be provided as determined by applicable law.&rdquo; The university is working to determine whether vaccination should be a requirement for Brown employees as well. In contrast, a spokesperson for Columbia University &mdash; another Ivy League <a href="https://covid19.columbia.edu/content/faqs-regarding-sars-cov-2-vaccine" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">school&nbsp;</a>&mdash; told Campus Reform&nbsp;it is &ldquo;strongly recommending, but not mandating&rdquo; vaccination for eligible persons.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16849" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16849" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16849" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Cornell renames English Department as part of &#39;decolonization efforts.&#39; Check out the new name.]</a> Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway, pointing out that the vaccine will be available to all Americans by the end of May, <a href="https://www.rutgers.edu/news/rutgers-require-covid-19-vaccine-students" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> that &ldquo;adding COVID-19 vaccination to our student immunization requirements will help provide a safer and more robust college experience for our students.&rdquo; Northeastern University also <a href="https://news.northeastern.edu/coronavirus/university-messages/student-vaccination-requirements-for-fall-2021/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announced</a> that all students &ldquo;will be expected to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the first day of classes.&rdquo; Students are permitted to &ldquo;request religious and medical exemptions to the policy.&rdquo; In the fall of 2020, universities across the United States began implementing flu vaccine requirements as part of efforts to fight COVID-19.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15875" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15875" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15875" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Universities mandate flu shots as part of COVID fighting efforts]</a> Campus Reform reached out to Cornell University, Rutgers University, and Northeastern University, but did not receive a response. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

Some schools are not mandating the vaccine, but are instead “strongly recommending” them.

Colleges nationwide mandate COVID vaccine for returning students

Vandals destroyed Dartmouth College&rsquo;s Hanukkah menorah, prompting a police investigation.Dartmouth College President Philip Hanlon wrote in a Dec. 17 <a href="https://president.dartmouth.edu/news/2020/12/important-message-dartmouth-community" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">letter&nbsp;</a>to the Dartmouth community that seven of the nine lights on the school&rsquo;s menorah had been &ldquo;shot out with what appears to have been a pellet gun.&rdquo;&ldquo;This appalling act of anti-Semitism, perpetrated during Hanukkah in the heart of our campus, is an affront to all,&rdquo; said Hanlon. &ldquo;We condemn this bigotry and hatred. Such acts leave members of our community feeling unsafe and afraid. They come from a place of ignorance and cowardice.&rdquo;The lighting of the menorah&rsquo;s eighth candle went on as scheduled, and the college began working alongside local police to investigate the incident.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16036" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: NYU and Department of Education reach settlement over anti-Semitism complaint]</a>Rabbi Moshe Leib Gray told <a href="https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2020/12/college-condemns-anti-semitism-after-dartmouth-green-menorah-vandalized" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Dartmouth</a> that he discovered the shattered lights when he went to light the seventh bulb on Dec. 16.&ldquo;They all had the same thing,&rdquo; Gray explained. &ldquo;Somebody literally stood there at the base of the menorah and shot, with some kind of an air gun or BB gun.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=14180" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: DOE investigating UCLA for anti-Semitism]</a>Hanover, New Hampshire Police Department Lieutenant Scott Rathburn told Campus Reform that law enforcement has not yet identified a suspect, but added that, through an eyewitness account and video from a local business, police have &ldquo;narrowed the time frame when the damage occurred&rdquo; to approximately 8:00 on the night of December 15.&ldquo;We are looking for two people described as young, possibly high school-aged, males,&rdquo; said Rathburn. &ldquo;We have also learned of other damage to buildings in the area of the Green that was caused by a BB/pellet gun.&rdquo;In December 2019, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed toward combating anti-Semitism at colleges and universities. The executive order promises to withhold federal funds that fail to protect Jewish students from discrimination.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=14092" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Trump signs executive order against campus anti-Semitism]</a>Campus Reform reached out to Dartmouth College for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

Vandals at Dartmouth College destroyed the school's menorah on the last night of Hanukkah.

Police investigate 'appalling act of anti-Semitism' at Dartmouth College

New York University has reached a settlement with the Department of Education over a complaint alleging that the university discriminated against Jewish students.In the <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/NYU-OCR-Resolution-Agreement-9-25-20-With-Watermark.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">settlement</a>, obtained by Jewish Insider, the Department of Education states that it was alleged that &ldquo;the university discriminated against students of Jewish descent, on the basis of their national origin, by failing to respond appropriately to incidents that created a hostile environment for Jewish students at the university.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15555" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Jewish student center intentionally set on fire, authorities say]</a> An incident included in the complaint, which allegedly occurred in December 2018, describes an NYU student tweeting that he wanted &ldquo;all Zionists to die&rdquo; which in turn led to the <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2018/december/Bronfman_closing.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">closure</a> of the University&#39;s Bronfman Center for two days. The Department of Education&#39;s Office of Civil Rights reached a settlement with NYU in September. The university agreed to &ldquo;revise its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy to incldue a statement that the University prohibits discrimination on the bases of shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics, including anti-Semitism.&rdquo; The revised policy will also include a &ldquo;description of the forms of anti-Semitism that can manifest in the University environment.&rdquo; NYU was given an October 15th deadline to provide the Department of Education with documentation &ldquo;demonstrating that it adopted the revised policy and disseminated the policy to University students, faculty, and staff through its website, as well as other means the University deems effective to ensure that the information is widely disseminated.&rdquo; &nbsp; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15828" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: VIDEO: Students can&#39;t answer basic questions about the Holocaust]</a> The settlement comes after President Donald Trump signed an <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14092" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">executive order</a> in December 2019 that called on government departments to adopt &ldquo;the non-legally binding working definition of anti-Semitism adopted on May 6, 2016, by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).&rdquo; <a href="https://www.israeliamerican.org/iac-national-summit/team-member/adela-cojab-moadeb" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Adela Cojab</a>, who filed a complaint with NYU, told&nbsp;Campus Reform that the settlement is a &quot;first step.&quot;&nbsp;&ldquo;I think the settlement is a great first step in fighting antisemitism on college campuses. I&rsquo;m glad NYU chose to settle before the full investigation was launched&mdash; to me, it shows they recognize they can improve their policies and want to work to create a safe and welcoming environment for Jewish students,&quot; Cojab said. &ldquo;That said, the settlement isn&rsquo;t perfect. While OCR and the Executive Order both operate in the IHRA&rsquo;s definition of antisemitism, I am worried NYU will not use the full definition and exclude anti-Zionism. Much of the discrimination we faced, if not all, was propagated by anti-Zionists on campus. Instituting trainings and policies to combat anti-Semitism with an incomplete definition missed the mark and doesn&rsquo;t address the issue,&rdquo; she added. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ashleyecarnahan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@ashleyecarnahan</a>

The university will revise its non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy.

NYU and Department of Education reach settlement over anti-Semitism complaint

After backlash, San Diego State University disinvited from a university-funded event a speaker accused of making anti-Semitic comments.In its Dec. 18 newsletter, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-24/san-diego-state-university-ava-muhammad-anti-semitism-controversy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">obtained</a> by the Los Angles Times, SDSU celebrated four grants <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-24/san-diego-state-university-ava-muhammad-anti-semitism-controversy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">awarded</a> to graduate students for projects aimed at empowering black students. One such project was a summit proposed by SDSU graduate assistant Terry Siver, for which he had been granted $68,000 by the university.The speaker list for the summit on slavery reparations included Nation of Islam representative Ava Muhammad until the school&rsquo;s faculty pointed out that the figure had been accused of anti-Semitism.<a href="https://twitter.com/DylMeisner/status/1208592033566183424?s=20" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Video</a> of one of Muhammad&rsquo;s alleged anti-Semitic rants shows her calling Jewish people &ldquo;godless&rdquo; and &ldquo;blood-sucking parasites&rdquo; that &ldquo;sell us alcohol, drugs, depraved sex, and every other type of low-life thing.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/?ID=14162" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: &nbsp;UNH Prof: Asking black people to speak out about anti-Semitism makes you a &lsquo;garden variety racist&rsquo;]</a>While the summit has not yet been confirmed, SDSU has revised the list of speakers to avoid hosting &ldquo;those who have espoused anti-Semitic rhetoric in the past.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;This shows that the committees, faculty, and administrators who approved this proposal either did so without vetting the summit&rsquo;s speakers or they did the vetting and approved them anyway...at the very least, they were irresponsible,&rdquo; SDSU literature professor Peter Herman said, according to the Times.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14165" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: &nbsp;Speaker at Christian university compares illegal immigrants to Biblical Israelites going to &ldquo;Promised Land&rdquo;]</a>SDSU later put out a statement after previous ones saying that &quot;the student&rsquo;s proposed speaker list previously included those who have espoused anti-Semitic rhetoric in the past. We strongly reject anti-Semitic, and other disparaging messages and actions. SDSU will offer support to the student organizer to ensure that the original basis for the event &mdash; a critical exploration of slavery and reparations &mdash; can proceed.&rdquo;Campus Reform reached out to Sivers and Muhammad but did not receive a response in time for publication.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:<a href="https://twitter.com/jess__custodio" style="text-decoration:none;">&nbsp;@Jess__Custodio</a>

Muhammad as publicly said that Jews are “godless” and “blood-sucking parasites”

​SDSU disinvites speaker amid anti-Semitism charges

The DOE has opened an investigation into the University of California-Los Angeles after a pro-Israel group said that the school fails to protect its Jewish students from discrimination.The U.S. Department of Education&rsquo;s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) notified non-profit education organization StandWithUs that it accepted a complaint alleging that UCLA violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Pro Israel group <a href="https://www.standwithus.com/post/ucla-student-standwithus-submit-title-vi-complaint-against-ucla-alleging-inaction-on-antisemitism" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">StandWithUs&rsquo;s complaint</a>, filed with student Shayna Lavi, states that the UCLA administration failed to prevent a hostile campus environment for its Jewish campus community in complete disregard of the school&#39;s Title VI responsibilities.The inciting incident involved a guest lecture by San Francisco State University Professor <a href="https://amed.sfsu.edu/content/rabab-abdulhadi-profile" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Rabab Abdulhadi</a>, who gave what the organization <a href="https://www.standwithus.com/ucla-titlevi-complaint" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">called&nbsp;</a>an &ldquo;anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rant&rdquo; against Israel during a May 14 &ldquo;Constructing Race&rdquo; class taught by UCLA professor<a href="https://anthro.ucla.edu/faculty/kyeyoung-park" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">&nbsp;Kyeyoung Park</a>. According to the complaint, Abdulhadi allegedly accused Israelis of supporting ethnic cleansing and specifically categorized support for Israel as &ldquo;white supremacy.&quot;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13849" style="text-decoration:none;">[Related: UCLA student files federal complaint against school, alleging anti-Semitism]</a>When Lavi challenged Abdulhadi during the class, Abdulhadi and later Park allegedly repeatedly harassed Lavi. Lavi then informed the school, which she says failed to provide meaningful support or response.&ldquo;Students should never be subjected to discrimination, harassment or retaliation by their professors after standing up for themselves, their identity, and their community,&quot; <a href="https://www.standwithus.com/post/u-s-department-of-education-s-ocr-opens-investigation-on-alleged-ucla-title-vi-violation" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">said </a>StandWithUs co- founder and CEO Roz Rothstein. &ldquo;For Shayna, as for many Jews, Zionism is an integral part of her Jewish identity, and university administrators should be in the business of protecting students against conduct that marginalizes and demonizes them, not giving such hate a free pass.&rdquo; &nbsp;&ldquo;Either the UCLA administration knew the topics of discussion before allowing the SFSU professor to guest lecture for a full class of UCLA students or they didn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; UCLA student Ben Plesse told Campus Reform. &ldquo;If they knew, they consciously allowed someone who is strongly biased to give a lecture to a group of UCLA students who likely did not know much about the conflict in the middle east, given that it was an anthropology class. If they didn&rsquo;t know, it was clearly an irresponsible decision on the school&rsquo;s part for permitting a professor to give a lecture without knowing what they would lecture on. In both cases, the school made a condemnable decision by letting Dr. Abdulhadi give a lecture on campus.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14092" style="text-decoration:none;">[Related: Trump signs executive order against campus anti-Semitism]</a>Plesse added that while he believes the school does a decent job to protect free speech &ldquo;there&rsquo;s a fine line between protecting free speech and protecting student safety.&rdquo;&ldquo;UCLA should be a platform for free thinking, though it ought to do more to balance the ideas going around. For example, it would have been much more useful for there to have been a guest lecture where opinions on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are heard,&rdquo; he added.UCLA officials did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/arik_schneider" style="text-decoration:none;">@arik_schneider</a>

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened a full investigation.

DOE investigating UCLA for anti-Semitism

University of New Hampshire physics professor <a href="https://physics.unh.edu/people/faculty/chanda-prescod-weinstein" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Chanda Prescod-Weinstein</a> took to Twitter on New Year&rsquo;s Eve to explain why anti-Semitism is exclusively a &ldquo;white&rdquo; problem, and why it is inappropriate to discuss anti-Semitic acts committed by black people.Prescod-Weinstein began her tweetstorm by explaining that it is &ldquo;anti-Black&rdquo; and &ldquo;dangerous both to non-Jewish Black people and to Jews&rdquo; to consider violent attacks against Jews by Black people &ldquo;equivalent&rdquo; to &ldquo;white antisemitism.&rdquo;&ldquo;Antisemitism in the United States, historically, is a white Christian problem, and if any Black people have developed antisemitic views it is under the influence of white gentiles,&rdquo; the professor clarified.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13696" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: OPINION: Academia&#39;s anti-Semitism brainwashes future leaders]</a><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/14162/1578062361330.jpg" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The professor goes on to explain how &ldquo;white Jews adopted whiteness as a social praxis and harmed Black people in the process,&rdquo; and that &ldquo;Some Black people have problematically blamed Jewishness for it.&rdquo;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/14162/1578064465280.jpg" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">&ldquo;There is no systemic Black on Jewish violence,&rdquo; the professor clarified before insisting that &ldquo;Putting more police and people with guns outside of synagogues may make white Jews feel safer but it will endanger Jews of color, especially Black Jews and Middle Eastern Jews.&rdquo;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/14162/1578064666527.jpg" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/14162/1578064859592.jpg" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Prescod-Weinstein continued her thread by proclaiming that &ldquo;Reifying the Zionist project in Palestine will not lead to long term safety for Jews, especially Palestinian Jews and anyone else who isn&rsquo;t a white Ashkenazi Jew.&rdquo;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/14162/1578065370514.jpg" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">She goes on to blame violent attacks against Jewish people on &ldquo;incarceration&rdquo; in that it &ldquo;is a response that begets violence&rdquo; that &ldquo;actively endangers&rdquo; and because &ldquo;prisons are a hot bed of white supremacist gang recruitment.&rdquo;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/14162/1578065577522.jpg" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13849" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: UCLA student files federal complaint against school, alleging anti-Semitism]</a>She then invokes President Donald Trump, calling him the &ldquo;antisemite in chief.&rdquo;&ldquo;He wants you to be distracted by efforts to throw mentally ill Black people who have breathed in antisemitism into the mass incarceration complex. You choose what you do next,&rdquo; she said of the President.&ldquo;But know that if you&rsquo;re demanding that Black leaders make a particular point of speaking out about antisemitism, you&rsquo;re probably a garden variety racist.&rdquo;She concludes by warning that discussions around Black anti-Semitism are a &ldquo;distracting&rdquo; people from the fight against white supremacy.&ldquo;It might feel good in the short term, but what are the costs in the long term?&rdquo; she asks.<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/14162/1578065829350.jpg" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The professor has since taken her Twitter feed private. She did not respond to request for comment in time for publicationFollow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/celinedryan" style="text-decoration:none;">@celinedryan</a>

A professor at the University of New Hampshire went on a New Year's Eve tweet rant expressing how people should discuss recent violent anti-Semitic attacks by black individuals.

UNH ​Prof: Asking black people to speak out about anti-Semitism makes you a ‘garden variety racist’

Colleges may pride themselves on their sensitivity to so-called &ldquo;microaggressions,&rdquo; but on some campuses, Jewish students continue to experience instances of being smeared, stereotyped and demeaned. It has even caught the attention of President Donald Trump, who issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-combating-anti-semitism/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism</a> Wednesday.&nbsp;In it, he said, &ldquo;My Administration is committed to combating the rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incidents in the United States and around the world. &nbsp;Anti-Semitic incidents have increased since 2013, and students, in particular, continue to face anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on university and college campuses.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14092" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Trump signs executive order against campus anti-Semitism]</a>Campus Reform reported on many such instances on America&rsquo;s college campuses in 2019. Here are some of the most egregious.1. Group of Stanford Students Circulate Flyers of Ben Shapiro&rsquo;s Face on an Insect Extermination Spray Container.&nbsp;What is there that is more anti-Semitic than to suggest the extermination of a Jewish person? In protest of Ben Shapiro&rsquo;s speaking event, some Stanford University students circulated flyers on campus showing a &ldquo;BUG B GON&rdquo; insecticide dispenser with a few alterations: the brand was changed to &ldquo;BEN B GON&rdquo; and half of the pest profiles on the dispenser were replaced with Shapiro&rsquo;s face. For insecticide products, the pest profiles are used as a visual key to which species of pests the product is designed to kill. The editorial board of The Stanford Review <a href="https://stanfordreview.org/coalition-of-concerned-students-share-inane-ben-shapiro-protest-flyer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">condemned</a> the use of the images, saying, &ldquo;At best, this is a poor attempt at humor, beneath the intellectually vibrant culture we hold dear on this campus; at worst, it&#39;s a play on anti-Semitic tropes about extermination, which have a long, dark history.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12159" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2. Jewish Student Organizations Condemn &ldquo;White Tears, Zionist Tears,&rdquo; and &ldquo;F*ck Zionists&rdquo; Statements at UC-Berkeley.</a>In the wake of a controversy over student office disqualifications for campaign finance errors allegedly made in &ldquo;good faith,&rdquo; students at the University of California-Berkeley expressed their feelings at a contentious student government meeting April 17. A total of 12 Jewish student organizations issued a <a href="https://www.jncberkeley.com/post/berkeley-s-jewish-community-responds-to-4-17-asuc-senate-meeting" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">statement</a> condemning some of the comments allegedly made during the meeting, including &ldquo;f*ck Zionists&rdquo; and another comment suggesting that the Israeli Defense Forces train American police to murder Black Americans. The groups said, &ldquo;Several speakers used the opportunity to invoke anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist views as dog-whistles to target Jews, including specific Jewish students in the room.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12224" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Semester in review: 5 most anti-Israel stories in Spring 2019]</a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13849" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">3. UCLA Student Files Federal Complaint for Anti-Semitism.</a>A University of California-Los Angeles student alleged that a guest lecturer harassed her and called Zionists &ldquo;white supremacists.&rdquo; She also says the school mishandled anti-Semitism on campus and suggests that UCLA establish an anti-Semitism task force. Her Title VI complaint was filed with the Department of Education&rsquo;s Office for Civil Rights. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12100" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">4. Columbia SJP Promotes &#39;Israel Apartheid Week&#39; with Poster Portraying Israeli Soldier with Horn.</a>To promote an event, pro-Palestinian groups at Columbia University circulated flyers with cartoonish images including an Israeli soldier with a tall, red bump on his head which uncannily resembled a horn. Orthodox Jewish group Chabad says the portrayal of a Jew with horns is an <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2617031/jewish/10-Anti-Semitic-Myths.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">anti-Semitic trope</a> used to classify Jews as &ldquo;devils.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12097" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">5.. SJP at Emory Distributes Fake &ldquo;Eviction Notices&rdquo; Bashing Israel, Calls for Boycott of Jewish Groups.</a>A Students for Justice &nbsp;in Palestine chapter posted unapproved &ldquo;eviction notices&rdquo; on students&rsquo; doors. The material was to bring awareness to the &ldquo;apartheid&rdquo; in Israel. The posters read, &ldquo;If you do not vacate the premise by midnight on April 5th 2019, we reserve the right to destroy all remaining belongings.&rdquo; The posters also said, &ldquo;Palestinian homes are destroyed as part of the state of Israel&rsquo;s ongoing attempts to ethnically cleanse the region of its Arab inhabitants and maintain an exclusively &lsquo;Jewish&rsquo; character of the state.&rdquo; The posters clarified at the bottom that they were &ldquo;not real eviction notices.&rdquo; After receiving backlash for the papers, SJP called for a boycott of Jewish groups on campus.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/Jonathan_M_Jr" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@Jonathan_M_Jr</a>

Campus Reform has compiled a list of the most extreme cases of anti-Semitism on America’s college campuses in 2019.

5 most EXTREME cases of anti-Semitism on campus this year

A new executive order promises to protect Jewish students on campus from potential discrimination.Trump announced he would sign the executive order aimed toward combating anti-Semitism at colleges and universities on Wednesday. The order would cut off federal dollars from schools that do not protect Jewish students from discrimination.<a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq43e4.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1984</a> allows the U.S. Department of Education to withhold funding from schools that discriminate against people on the basis of &ldquo;race, color, or national origin.&rdquo; Trump&rsquo;s order would recognize people of Jewish heritage as having their own national origin or ethnicity, effectively including them within the groups protected by Title IV.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12224" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Semester in Review: 5 most anti-Israel stories in Spring 2019]&nbsp;</a>According to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/us/politics/trump-antisemitism-executive-order.html" style="text-decoration:none;">New York Times</a>, the definition that will be employed by the State Department was originally created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and indicates &ldquo;a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.&rdquo;While some consider the executive order to be a positive move to protect civil liberties, others have expressed concerns that it will chill free speech and be used to silence any criticism of Israel.Executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights Yousef Munayyer, said that the order is part of a concerted effort to &ldquo;to silence Palestinian rights activism&rdquo; by blurring the lines between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel.&ldquo;Israeli apartheid is a very hard product to sell in America, especially in progressive spaces and realizing this, many Israeli apartheid apologists, Trump included, are looking to silence a debate they know they can&rsquo;t win,&rdquo; Yousef said.This order comes just days after Trump condemned the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign while <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-israeli-american-council-national-summit-2019/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">speaking</a> at the Israeli American Council National Summit.&ldquo;I want to be very clear [that] my administration vigorously condemns the BDS campaign against Israel. But sadly, BDS has also made disturbing headway on American college campuses,&rdquo; Trump said.&nbsp;Trump also invited New York University alumna Adela Cojab to speak about how her school &ldquo; failed to protect its Jewish community from ongoing harassment&rdquo; including attacks on social media, student government resolutions, boycotts, and burning flags.&nbsp;&ldquo;The physical assaults ended in two arrests, and the university didn&rsquo;t stand idly. &nbsp;Instead, they gave an anti-Israel hate group the President Service Award, the highest honor you can receive as a group on campus,&rdquo; Cojab said.&nbsp;&ldquo;I was notified my case was accepted by the Department of Education, and an investigation has been launched against NYU for failure to protect this community.&rdquo;Cojab also stated that students in the audience should not be afraid to stand up and that as an immigrant from Mexico City, that she is thankful to live in a country where the Office of Civil Rights &ldquo;takes the concerns of Jewish students seriously&rdquo;.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14058" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: UNC agrees to make changes after &lsquo;anti-Semitic&rsquo; rapper controversy]&nbsp;</a>&ldquo;[Zionist Organization of America] is responsible for the original victory making sure that Jewish students on campus are protected under Title VI,&rdquo; New York University alumna and the current Tri-State Campus Coordinator for the ZOA, Marlene Artov, told Campus Reform.&nbsp;She stated that the executive order is &ldquo;extremely meaningful&rdquo; on several levels including that Jewish students have the right to be protected under Title IV and that being Jewish is not simply a religion, but &ldquo;we are in fact a people.&quot;&ldquo;This helps dispel extremely anti-Semitic myths like &lsquo;the Holocaust happened to white people&rsquo; or &lsquo;religions don&#39;t have self-determination&rsquo;&rdquo; she said.&nbsp;Artov told Campus Reform that concerns about free speech being limited by the order are misguided.&nbsp;&ldquo;I do not see it that way. Individuals and students still have opportunities to debate, and protest, and speak their minds: they can say whatever they want to say. However, the order is saying the government will not support universities that do not keep their Jewish students safe. Jewish students have been physically assaulted on college campuses, and the administration often takes the side of the perpetrators,&rdquo; she explained.&ldquo;This order is not about speech, it is about action. It is not about disallowing criticism of Israel, it is about the physical safety of Jewish students and making sure that administrations take it seriously,&rdquo; Artov added.&ldquo;The President&rsquo;s order codifies a definition of anti-Semitism established by the State Department under President Obama and it strikes directly at the thinly-veiled bigotry against Jews and Israel that has become institutionalized on college campuses. Claiming this chills free speech is a canard. This is no more an attack on free speech than the policies used by the federal government during the civil rights era to end the open discrimination of African Americans by colleges receiving federal dollars,&rdquo; Syracuse University student and Campus Reform New York Campus Correspondent Justine Murray told Campus Reform.&ldquo;The sad fact is, Jews and the state of Israel stand alone in being the only people and nation whose legitimacy is freely attacked, questioned and undermined daily in academic life and in the approved curriculum on our college campuses in this nation. This is not about debates on the policies of Israel. This is about the open, accepted use of anti-semitic tropes, myths, stereotypes and propaganda by academics on the left as well as the right and the lack of resolve in America, until now, to do anything about it,&rdquo; Murray added.Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/francesanne123" style="text-decoration:none;">@francesanne123</a>

Trump signs executive order against campus anti-Semitism

A student at the University of California - Los Angeles filed a federal complaint against the school Monday, alleging that the university did not adequately respond to an incident of anti-Semitism in spring 2019.StandWithUs, a nonprofit Israel education organization, filed the <a href="https://www.standwithus.com/ucla-titlevi-complaint" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">complaint</a> with Shayna Lavi, the UCLA student who was required to attend a guest lecture featuring a professor who allegedly harassed Lavi and said that Zionists are &ldquo;white supremacists,&rdquo; according to a <a href="https://www.standwithus.com/post/ucla-student-standwithus-submit-title-vi-complaint-against-ucla-alleging-inaction-on-antisemitism" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">press release</a>.The Title VI complaint was filed with the Department of Education&rsquo;s Office for Civil Rights.The guest lecturer, San Francisco State University Professor <a href="https://amed.sfsu.edu/content/rabab-abdulhadi-profile" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rabab Abdulhadi</a>, gave an &ldquo;anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rant&rdquo; against Israel during the May 14 &ldquo;Constructing Race&rdquo; class taught by<a href="https://anthro.ucla.edu/faculty/kyeyoung-park" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;Kyeyoung Park</a>. Lavi said that the lecture included &ldquo;a claim that those who support Israel want to ethnically cleanse the Middle East and those affiliated with Israel and pro-Israel organizations are white supremacists,&rdquo; according to <a href="https://jewishjournal.com/news/los_angeles/298850/ucla-guest-lecturer-calls-zionists-white-supremacists/" style="text-decoration:none;">Jewish Journal</a>.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13278" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Bill aimed at banning anti-Semitism in public schools gets some hefty pushback]</a>According to Lavi, Abdulhadi also said that Israel and the U.S. have &ldquo;shared values&rdquo; of &ldquo;killing people, colonialism and white supremacy.&rdquo;When Lavi addressed Abdulhadi on the professor&#39;s statements about Zionism and Israel, the professor apparently responded: &ldquo;Thank you. That&rsquo;s your opinion but you&rsquo;re wrong. I stand with Jews who do not support Israel and I hope that Jews will disalign themselves with white supremacy,&rdquo; according to the report.The professor&rsquo;s response, according to the complaint, &ldquo;brought Ms. Lavi to tears, and silenced her.&rdquo;&ldquo;Not content to stop there, Professor Abdulhadi repeatedly berated and belittled Ms. Lavi in front of the entire class,&rdquo; &nbsp;the complaint continued. &ldquo;Dr. Park remained silent during this onslaught.&rdquo;When Lavi requested to meet with Park, the professor allegedly claimed that she did not have time to meet with her. However, Park did confront Lavi after class one day and said that her definition of Zionism was wrong.&ldquo;Dr. Park instead took Ms. Lavi aside after a subsequent class session expressly to inform Ms. Lavi that her own definition of Zionism (i.e., the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their ancestral homeland equal to the right of other peoples) was &lsquo;wrong&rsquo; and that Dr. Park agrees with Professor Abdulhadi&rsquo;s statements about Zionists,&rdquo; according to the complaint.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13696" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: OPINION: Academia&rsquo;s anti-Semitism brainwashes future leaders]</a>Lavi decided to file a complaint with the UCLA Office for Equity, Diversity &amp; Inclusion which, after three months, amounted to nothing more than a note to Lavi that the school would &ldquo;recommend training&rdquo; to Park, the complaint asserts.After filing the complaint, Park allegedly took classroom time to &ldquo;complain to the class&rdquo; and implied that &ldquo;Ms. Lavi was victimizing Dr. Park.&rdquo;However, a StandWithUs spokeswoman told Campus Reform that Lavi&rsquo;s grade was not reduced because of the incident.In the complaint, StandWithUs suggests that UCLA do the following, among other remedies:<ul><li>&nbsp;&ldquo;UCLA must adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Anti-Semitism and be guided by this definition when addressing potential incidents of anti-Semitic discrimination&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;UCLA must create an anti-Semitism task force, consisting of students and faculty selected with the advice and consent of, among others, Jewish Zionist student leaders.&rdquo;</li></ul>Carly F. Gammill, director and counsel for litigation strategy at StandWithUs Center for Combating Antisemitism, told Campus Reform that, unfortunately, incidents like Lavi&rsquo;s are only becoming more and more common. She says a step in the right direction would be the recognition of &ldquo;Zionism is an integral component of their Jewish identity.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/?ID=13835" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Report: Anti-Israel bias has increased significantly on campuses]</a>&ldquo;The types of incidents occurring at UCLA are becoming more prevalent on campuses across the country, which is precisely why administrators need to take proactive steps to prevent the further spread of antisemitism that negatively impacts the experience of Jewish students and staff,&rdquo; Gammill said.UCLA spokesman Ricardo Vazquez reacted to the complaint in a statement to Campus Reform.&quot;This spring a few students in Anthropology M144P raised concerns about a guest speaker who lectured on Islamophobia. &nbsp;From their perspective, the lecture went beyond legitimate criticism of the State of Israel and instead harshly criticized Zionism in a manner which they deemed anti-Semitic. A complaint was made to UCLA&rsquo;s Discrimination Prevention Office (DPO), which investigates reports of discrimination or harassment based on race, religion, and other legally protected categories. &nbsp;After viewing a recording of the class and interviewing participants, DPO, while not endorsing the guest speaker&rsquo;s ideas or the manner in which the class was handled, concluded that the comments made during the lecture were not the type of severe, pervasive and persistent unwelcome conduct that constitutes harassment or discrimination,&quot; he said.Park and Abdulhadi did not reply to requests for comment in time for publication.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/asabes10" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">@asabes10</a>

Her complaint suggests that UCLA establish an anti-Semitism task force.

UCLA student files federal complaint against school, alleging anti-Semitism

Campus Reform spoke Wednesday with a director from a nonprofit combating anti-Semitism after Georgia Republican Rep. Doug Collins reintroduced the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which would enable the Department of Education to investigate allegations of anti-Semitism on college campuses.The <a href="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0275399506e2bdd8fe2012b77/files/ad2cae88-7f21-45b3-b78e-11e83497ec1e/Anti_Semitism_Awareness_Act_copy.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">bill</a>, similar versions of which were introduced in 2016 and 2018, as reported by <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/palestine-advocacy-campuses/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mondoweiss</a>, would add the definition of anti-Semitism as a form of discrimination covered under Title VI protections in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.Specifically, the anti-Semitism definition used is the <a href="https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/working-definition-antisemitism" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">one</a> adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which is also used by the U.S. Department of State: &ldquo;Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12224" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Semester in review: 5 most anti-Israel stories in spring 2019]</a>The bill states that anti-Semitism remains an issue in public schools across the country, including colleges and universities.&ldquo;Anti-Semitism, and harassment on the basis of actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics with a religious group, remains a persistent, disturbing problem in elementary and secondary schools and on college campuses,&rdquo; the bill states.&ldquo;The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act provides the Department of Education an effective tool for investigating whether prohibited discriminatory actions have become a barrier to learning,&rdquo; Collins said in a <a href="https://republicans-judiciary.house.gov/press-release/collins-introduces-anti-semitism-awareness-act/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">press release</a>. &ldquo;We want to provide the department with the resources necessary to protect the First Amendment rights of students and to ensure all students receive equal educational opportunities.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13278" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Bill aimed at banning anti-Semitism in public schools gets some hefty pushback]</a>Carly Gammill, director of the StandWithUs Center for Combating anti-Semitism and council for litigation strategy, told Campus Reform that the bill is a response to an increasing amount of anti-Semitism on college campuses and public schools.&ldquo;The purpose of the legislation is to give Jewish students the same Title VI protection from discrimination that other minority groups enjoy -- no more, no less,&rdquo; Gammill said.Gammill told Campus Reform that the bill does not permit any infringement on First Amendment rights and &ldquo;merely requires the Department of Education to &lsquo;take into consideration&rsquo; the IHRA definition of antisemitism when assessing potential Title VI violations.&rdquo;But not all are in favor of the legislation.&ldquo;Supporters of Israel have become more brazen in painting almost any critique of Israel as anti-semitic while discarding free speech and academic freedom,&rdquo; Duke University Ph.D. candidate Aman Aberra&nbsp;told Mondoweiss. &ldquo;This produces a chilling effect, where students are less willing to wade into this issue, since it&rsquo;s perceived as dangerous to their reputations or careers.&rdquo;Over the past year, Campus Reform has covered various related stories on college campuses. For example, the Department of Education opened an investigation into Williams College in May, after a pro-Israel student organization was denied official recognition by its college council.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12201" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: College under federal investigation after pro-Israel goup denied recognition (UPDATE)]</a>At Syracuse University, students even received <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11875" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">course credit</a> for participating in an anti-Israel internship.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/asabes10" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">@asabes10</a>

Campus Reform interviewed a supporter of the legislation from pro-Israel nonprofit StandWithUs.

Georgia rep reintroduces Anti-Semitism Awareness Act...but will it pass?

The Department of Education has opened an investigation into the University of North Carolina-Duke Consortium for Middle East Studies after receiving complaints of anti-Semitism at the event, which was partially funded by a federal grant.According to <a href="https://abc11.com/i-team-us-dept-of-education-investigating-duke-unc-consortium/5350504/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">WTVD-TV</a>, Secretary Betsy DeVos responded to Rep. George Holding&rsquo;s <a href="https://holding.house.gov/uploadedfiles/conferenceletter.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">letter</a> calling for an investigation into the incident by agreeing to open up an investigation.&ldquo;I am troubled by the concerns outlined in your letter,&rdquo; Secretary DeVos said in her June 18 <a href="https://holding.house.gov/uploadedfiles/letter.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">letter</a>. &quot;In order for the department to learn more about this matter, I have directed the Office of Postsecondary Education to examine the use of funds under this program to determine if the Consortium violated the terms and conditions of its grant.&quot;Rapper Tamer Nafar was a performer at the conference hosted by the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies and drew allegations of anti-Semitism because of a song he performed on stage, as <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12147" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Campus Reform reported at the time</a>.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12147" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Islamic studies center pays a price after hosting &#39;anti-Semitic&#39; rapper]</a>&quot;Let&#39;s try it together. I need your help. I cannot be anti-Semitic alone,&quot; Nafar said before singing, &quot;don&#39;t think of Rihanna when you sing this, don&#39;t think of Beyonce - think of Mel Gibson. I&#39;m in love with a Jew/Oh/I fell in love with a Jew/Oh/Her skin is white and my skin is brown, she was going up, up and I was going down.&quot;The song Nafar was singing at the time, titled, &quot;Mama, I fell in love with a Jew,&quot; describes a Palestinian man coming to terms with how he has fallen in love with a Jewish woman while trying to put the ongoing culture clash between the two groups of people behind them.Specifically, DeVos said she is investigating whether the consortium violated a provision of Title VI of the Higher Education Act of 1965, namely that activities funded by federal grants must &quot;reflect diverse perspectives and a wide range of views and generate debate on world religions and international affairs.&quot;In a <a href="https://holding.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1210" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">press release</a>, Rep. George Holding (R-NC) said that he is pleased the DOE is investigating the incident.&nbsp;&ldquo;I appreciate Secretary DeVos treating this matter with the seriousness and attention it deserves,&rdquo; Holding said. &ldquo;Honest academic debate featuring diverse perspectives and a wide range of views is critical in a democratic society and a cornerstone of America&rsquo;s educational system.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11719" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UNC defends hosting &#39;anti-semitic&#39; Women&#39;s March leader for MLK Day]</a>Following the conference, multiple department deans requested that their departmental donations to the conference be returned, which they were, Campus Reform&nbsp;<a href="https://abc11.com/religion/some-sponsors-want-money-back-after-anti-semitic-remarks-at-unc-conference/5254363/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a>.Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, told Campus Reform that she is pleased that the DOE is opening the investigation.&ldquo;University departments should not be using taxpayer funds to hold events that promote anti-Semitism or any other form of hate,&rdquo; Rothstein said. &quot;We hope this investigation will help ensure accountability for the conference and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.&quot;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/asabes10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@asabes10</a>

The Department of Education has opened an investigation into a UNC event featuring a Palestinian rapper.

DeVos directs Ed. Dept. to investigate UNC amid anti-Semitism claims

Earlier this year, Sen. Tim Scott (R- SC) sponsored the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, a bill that seeks to fight the spread of anti-semitism on college campuses.&nbsp;Campus Reform&rsquo;s Emma Meshell joined Scott in his Washington, D.C. office for an exclusive interview to discuss the bill and get his perspective on the state of higher education today. &nbsp;Citing a sharp increase in anti-Semitism on college campuses in the past three years, Scott explained that his legislation seeks to establish a consistent and detailed definition of anti-Semitism at the federal level.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12048" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Senators aim to crack down on campus anti-Semitism, of which there is plenty]</a>WATCH:&nbsp; <center><iframe width="650" height="366" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AmuyeXFvbYw" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></center> &ldquo;If you look at the last three years, there&rsquo;s been a 100 percent increase in anti-Semitism on college campuses. We&rsquo;re trying to combat that, and hopefully this sends the message on who we are as Americans, which starts on our college campuses,&rdquo; he said, referencing the legislation&rsquo;s purpose. &nbsp;Scott also spoke to the importance of students understanding our nation&rsquo;s history. He said, &ldquo;understanding the founding principles that have guided us for 243 years is incredibly important,&rdquo; continuing on to say that &quot;if you build the foundation on the rock, it withstands the storms that come...Knowing your foundation and your history is an important part of the equation.&rdquo;&ldquo;The concepts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness start with the fact that we have to respect people who are not like you. That&rsquo;s a fascinating concept that is unique to the American psyche and identity,&rdquo; he said, in reference to a need for civility in America.&nbsp;Calling for increased dialogue and discourse on our campuses, Scott said, &ldquo;we don&rsquo;t have to agree with one another, but we do have to respect each other.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13302" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Nearly a dozen U.S. senators sponsor campus free speech resolution]</a>Touching on the future of America, Scott called for students to learn about our history as a nation, saying, &ldquo;this human experiment in America has proven to be the most amazing transformational experience the world has ever seen. For it to continue, we need our college students and future leaders embracing the concepts that were a part of our foundation.&rdquo;&ldquo;We are starving for civility in the public forum,&rdquo; Scott said, in reference to the harsh discourse that is common today.&nbsp;He continued to touch on how conservative students can make a difference by explaining, &ldquo;If we could encourage people to think through absolute truths, we will find ourselves engaging in a civil and public debate that allows both sides to come to the table... conservatives will win every time.&rdquo;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/Emma_Meshell" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@Emma_Meshell</a>

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Sen. Tim Scott on campus anti-Semitism, free speech, and more

Amid an <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12224" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">alarming number</a> of anti-Israel statements and actions on college campuses around the country, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Wednesday aimed at curbing anti-Semitism in public schools, but that has also received criticism for infringing on free speech.DeSantis signed a <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/741/BillText/er/PDF" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">bill</a> adding anti-Semitism to the list of outlawed forms of discrimination in Florida, equating it with other forms of racial discrimination, reported the <a href="https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2019/05/29/ron-desantis-israel-anti-semitism-florida-schools-verboten-after-bill-signing-jerusalem/1275660001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Tallahassee Democrat</a>.&ldquo;Anti-Semitism has no place in our state,&rdquo; DeSantis <a href="https://www.tallahassee.com/videos/news/politics/2019/05/29/florida-gov-ron-desantis-signs-anti-semitism-bill-jerusalem/1274218001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">said</a> after the bill signing. &ldquo;We have this problem with anti-Semitism which is growing in the United States and is really out of control in Europe.&rdquo; DeSantis referenced sanctions made against Airbnb when it delisted West Bank properties in December and also said that the law was &ldquo;very clear&rdquo; in its prohibition of religious, particularly anti-Semitic, discrimination.The law gives examples of anti-Semitic statements, including &ldquo;making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective, especially, but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions&rdquo; and &ldquo;accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interest of their own nations.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12229" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign campus anti-Semitism bill, possibly on trip to Israel]</a>The new law is not without critics, however. A number of state and national groups and individuals, some Jewish, heavily criticized the law for infringing on the First Amendment and for defining anti-Semitism too broadly.&nbsp;David Abrams, a Florida attorney and former president of Congregation Shomrei Torah <a href="https://www.abcactionnews.com/desantis-signs-anti-semitism-bill-some-worry-it-infringes-on-free-speech" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">said</a> the law gave him &ldquo;discomfort.&rdquo;&nbsp;&quot;It does get [sic] a very broad definition to anti-Semitism,&rdquo; Abrams said. &ldquo;I really have some, quite a bit of discomfort in terms of whether or not this is constitutional.&rdquo;Another group comprised of more than a couple dozen Jewish Floridians <a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/295202-group-of-jewish-floridians-hammer-anti-semitism-bill-call-for-veto" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">blasted</a> the bill several weeks ago in a letter to DeSantis for conflating anti-Semitism with criticisms of Israel.&nbsp;&ldquo;We strongly object on two grounds,&rdquo; the letter read. &ldquo;First, the bill offers some examples of anti-Semitism that do not relate to anti-Semitism but, instead, to criticism of the State of Israel.&rdquo;&ldquo;Second, the proposal identifies anti-Semitism, and only anti-Semitism, as an example of religious discrimination&rdquo; the letter continued.&nbsp;According to Floridapolitics.com, the letter&rsquo;s signatories included constitutional lawyer Alan Levine, who has argued First Amendment cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, Rabbi Bryan Mann, and Miami lawyer Benjamin Waxman.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12179" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Pro-Palestinian group tries to stop Jewish students from visiting Israel]</a>&ldquo;There are 700,000 Jews in Florida,&rdquo; Florida Republican state Rep. Randy Fine, who sponsored the bill, said. &ldquo;The fact that 32 don&rsquo;t want to ensure their own children and grandchildren be protected in school is disappointing, but not news.&rdquo;&nbsp;But Liz Jackson, a self-described &ldquo;Jewish civil rights attorney&rdquo; at the organization Palestine Legal called the law &ldquo;shocking and disturbing.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;[DeSantis] promised during his campaign to make Florida the most &lsquo;pro-Israel&rsquo; state in the nation, and he is making good on that promise and sacrificing fundamental rights of Floridians as he goes, not to mention erasing Palestinians,&rdquo; Jackson said, according to <a href="https://www.wmnf.org/jewish-civil-rights-attorney-florida-governor-signs-absurd-bill-stolen-palestinian-land/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">WMNF</a>.&nbsp;As highlighted by the&nbsp;South Florida&nbsp;Sun-Sentinel <a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-edit-anti-semitism-fight-against-discrimination-20190507-yxkti5ws3zetvmlu6mpgytlv4i-story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">editorial board</a>, some of the other definitions of anti-Semitism in the law include &ldquo;drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis&rdquo; and &ldquo;delegitimizing Israel by denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination and denying Israel the right to exist.&rdquo;&nbsp;Joe Cohn of free speech nonprofit the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) told Campus Reform that the new law will be used to suppress student and faculty speech.&nbsp;&ldquo;The enactment of Florida&#39;s anti-Semitism legislation has dramatically undermined the Governor&#39;s initiative to promote free speech on campus,&rdquo; Cohn said. &ldquo;The new law statutorily labels nearly all criticisms of Israel as anti-Semitism, and will serve as a new tool to suppress student and faculty speech around one of the most hotly debated topics of our time.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12183" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Prof: &lsquo;I&rsquo;m being censored because I&rsquo;ve taken a very positive pro-Israeli stance&rsquo;]</a>Campus Reform reached out to Governor DeSantis&rsquo; office, as well as the University of Miami&#39;s Hillel chapter, the University of Florida&#39;s Hillel and Christians United for Israel chapters, AIPAC, and lawyer Alan Dershowitz for comment on the new law, but received no response in time for publication.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/eduneret" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">@eduneret</a>

But several parties, including Jewish individuals and groups, have raised alarms about its contents.

Bill aimed at banning anti-Semitism in public schools gets some hefty pushback

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has indicated that he will sign a bill aimed at combating anti-Semitism in public education, and it could occur during his planned trip to Israel later in the month.DeSantis made this statement during a trip in Miami Gardens, Fla. The bill would bar discrimination on the basis of religion in the Florida public education system, including at state-funded institutions of higher education, and specifically hone in on anti-Semitism.&nbsp;&ldquo;We have an anti-Semitism bill, which is one of the strongest in the nation, that I&rsquo;ll sign into law, actually I think I will sign it into law when we&rsquo;re in Jerusalem doing a Cabinet meeting,&rdquo; the governor said, according to the <a href="https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2019/05/10/florida-gov-ron-desantis-could-sign-bill-combating-anti-semitism-during-israel-trip" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Orlando Weekly</a>. He plans to be in Israel during the week of May 25-31.<a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/741" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">House Bill 741</a> cruised through the Florida House and Senate, receiving unanimous votes of approval from both bodies.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12113" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: ONE VOTE decided Cornell&rsquo;s Israeli divestment resolution]</a>The bill, if signed by DeSantis, would make religion a protected class. HB 741 highlights anti-Semitism, calling upon schools to treat such discrimination &ldquo;by students or employees or resulting from institutional policies motivated by anti-Semitic intent in an identical manner to discrimination motivated by race.&rdquo;The <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/741/BillText/er/PDF" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">bill</a> lists defines examples of anti-Semitism, including:<ul><li>&ldquo;Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews, often in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective, especially, but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, the State of Israel, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;Accusing Jews as a people or the State of Israel of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interest of their own nations.&rdquo;</li></ul>HB 741 also qualifies anti-Semitism pertaining to Israel, giving the examples of &ldquo;applying a double standard to Israel by requiring behavior of Israel that is not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation&rdquo; and &ldquo;delegitimizing Israel by denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination and denying Israel the right to exist.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12224" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Semester in review: 5 most anti-Israel stories in Spring 2019]</a>The bill does acknowledge that criticism of Israel &ldquo;that is similar to criticism toward any other country may not be regarded as anti-Semitic.&rdquo;Ed Rosenthal, the executive director and campus rabbi for the University of South Florida, told Campus Reform that he is supportive of the anti-Semitism bill, and says it deals with an ongoing problem in the U.S.&ldquo;Ironically, Jews are one of the smallest minority groups in the world yet, when it comes to discrimination and prejudice, we seem to get overlooked,&rdquo; Rosenthal said.&nbsp;Rosenthal says that anti-Semitism is referred to as the &ldquo;oldest hatred,&rdquo; and believes this bill is a step in the right direction in terms of stopping it.The USF Hillel campus rabbi has a message for state leaders and educators in Florida on how to stop anti-Semitism: &ldquo;observe the law.&rdquo;Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, an international Israel education organization, told Campus Reform that her group supports this legislation, stating that it is needed because of the &ldquo;alarming uptick of anti-Semitism.&rdquo;Rothstein says that using the bill will help school officials recognize anti-Semitism and protect students in schools.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11982" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: College tries to scrap only Israel study abroad program. President puts a stop to it quick.]</a>&ldquo;The first step to defeating a problem is to recognize and define it,&rdquo; Rothstein told Campus Reform. &ldquo;Using a clear and consistent definition will help administrators and law enforcement protect students.&rdquo;The StandWithUs CEO claimed that this particular legislation does not violate &ldquo;any First Amendment rights,&rdquo; noting that &ldquo;it addresses only unprotected conduct such as vandalism and harassment.&rdquo;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/asabes10" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">@asabes10</a>

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may sign a bill barring discrimination on the basis of religion in the Florida public education system.

Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign campus anti-Semitism bill, possibly on trip to Israel

A late April roundtable event at Texas A&amp;M University cited the phrase &ldquo;Where [sic] your Sunday best,&rdquo; as well as Christian traditions, as causes of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in America.&nbsp;Called &ldquo;Anti-Semitism and Other Forms of Prejudice and Discrimination,&rdquo; the roundtable discussion occurred a few days after the California synagogue shooting.&nbsp;&ldquo;We...felt the Pittsburgh massacre was not just about anti-Semitism, but it was also about immigration,&rdquo; Texas A&amp;M professor Ashley Passmore told <a href="http://www.thebatt.com/news/panelists-to-provide-insight-on-recent-intersection-of-judaism-and/article_289c9a54-6a33-11e9-b547-073d716c2be2.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">The Battalion</a>. &ldquo;If we look at the kinds of issues the attacker was going after, they were also anti-Muslim and kind of Islamophobic. We decided we wanted to talk about anti-Semitism in the United States and its connections with other types of hate discourses [by] looking at it intersectionality between anti-Semitism and other struggles in this country.&rdquo;Three Texas A&amp;M professors from the philosophy, humanities, and international studies departments, as well as a political science undergraduate, presented at this event hosted by The Working Group in Jewish Studies.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10792" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Kent State asks, &lsquo;Is Christianity the White Man&rsquo;s Religion?&rsquo;]</a> <center><iframe width="650" height="366" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l6AYa6E74Dg" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></center> Texas A&amp;M philosophy professor <a href="https://philosophy.tamu.edu/people/claire-katz/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Claire Katz</a>, who also researches feminist theory, referenced &ldquo;exclusionary practices&rdquo; in America that are to blame for anti-Semitism, according to a handout obtained by Campus Reform. In a section, titled &ldquo;Where [sic] your Sunday best,&rdquo; Katz lists &ldquo;religious holidays and school,&rdquo; &ldquo;prayer and school -- praying before events, e.g. athletics and band,&rdquo; &ldquo;dress codes and religion,&rdquo; and even references Christmas concerts.&ldquo;&lsquo;Wear your Sunday best,&rsquo;&rdquo; Katz told attendees. &ldquo;This is what my kids are always told at school for some kind of event. &lsquo;Wear your Sunday best&rsquo;...this is in a public school and so the view is everybody goes to church, right? But that&rsquo;s not true, whether you&rsquo;re religious or not. Not everybody goes to church.&rdquo;She claims that this statement is not &ldquo;innocuous,&rdquo; but instead encourages &ldquo;a larger framework of &lsquo;you may go to a public school but this is really a Christian school.&rdquo;&nbsp;<img class="fr-dib" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/12203/1557254450084.jpg" style="width: 600px;">Regarding Christmas music programs in public schools, Katz complained that her children&rsquo;s school terms a &ldquo;winter concert&rdquo; a &ldquo;Christmas concert&rdquo; in an &ldquo;unabashed, unashamed way,&rdquo; does not cater to any other religion, and creates &ldquo;a kind of hegemony and [is] closing down and [is] really approprialism in the worst sense of that term.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11183" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Religion prof argues that Christians should support abortion]</a>The professor then uses a personal instance of her daughter quitting the marching band at a public school because &ldquo;she got tired of the prayers that were said before the events.&rdquo;&nbsp;Katz includes a statement from <a href="https://liberalarts.temple.edu/academics/faculty/corwin-berman-lila" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Lila Corwin</a>, a history and Jewish studies professor at Temple University, in her handout.&nbsp;&ldquo;I am noticing that many Jewish organizations in their well-intentioned statements of mourning about the synagogue shooting in San Diego are not using the words white supremacy or white Christian nationalism, only the word anti-Semitism,&rdquo; Corwin said.Katz said during the roundtable that the word &ldquo;Christian&rdquo; inserted between &ldquo;white&rdquo; and &ldquo;nationalism&rdquo; &ldquo;is often left out&rdquo; in reporting and is &ldquo;the part of the discussion that we often don&rsquo;t have.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;When does white nationalism also appropriate certain tropes within Christianity?&rdquo; the professor asked attendees.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not only that it&rsquo;s the targeting of non-white bodies, it&rsquo;s also the targeting of two religions within the monotheistic or Abrahamic tradition that are now viewed as enemies of, or outside of, or not within the framework of whatever Christian values are.&rdquo;Texas A&amp;M lecturer <a href="https://ints.tamu.edu/brenner-david/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">David Brenner</a> bolds a statement derived from an interview Adolf Hitler did with The New York Times in 1931 in a handout. Brenner&rsquo;s quote claimed Hitler said, &ldquo;It was America that taught us a nation should not open its doors equally to all races.&rdquo;&nbsp;<img class="fr-dib" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/12203/1557254416471.jpg" style="width: 600px;"><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10875" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Chomsky claims GOP, Christianity trying to &lsquo;destroy the world&rsquo;]</a>However, the exact opposite was said by Hitler in the interview.&nbsp;The correct <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/12/20/140126562.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA®ion=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=139" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">statement</a> reads, &ldquo;Moreover, it was America, in spite of its enormous territory, that was the first country to teach us&mdash;by its immigration law&mdash;that a nation should open its doors equally to all nations.&rdquo;&nbsp;Katz and Brenner did not respond to Campus Reform&rsquo;s request for comment in time for publication.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/redwave1776" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@redwave1776</a>

A professor at a Texas A&M University roundtable event argued that "where [sic] your Sunday best" and Christmas concerts contributed to anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Texas A&M event blames CHRISTIANITY for Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia (AUDIO)

The U.S. Senate is considering legislation that would require the Department of Education to use the Department of State&rsquo;s definition of anti-Semitism when looking at cases of discrimination on college campuses and secondary schools.Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. introduced the <a href="https://www.scott.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/KIN19096.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Anti-Semitism Awareness Act</a> with the intention of combating the rise of anti-Semitism not only on college campuses but in all schools.&ldquo;Students from a range of diverse backgrounds, including Jewish, Arab Muslim, and Sikh students, are being threatened, harassed, or intimidated in their schools (including on their campuses) on the basis of their shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics including through harassing conduct that creates a hostile environment so severe, pervasive, or persistent so as to interfere with or limit some students&rsquo; ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities, or opportunities offered by schools,&rdquo; the bill states.A <a href="https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/scott-casey-introduce-anti-semitism-awareness-act-" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">press release</a> from Scott&rsquo;s office states that anti-Semitic events have almost doubled in 2018 compared to 2016.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11164" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Stanford RA threatens to &lsquo;physically fight&rsquo; pro-Israel students]</a>&quot;The rise in incidents of religious discrimination and religiously-motivated hate crimes around the world is completely unacceptable,&quot; Casey said in the press release. &quot;We have to not only condemn it but work to stop it.&quot;The move by the senators comes amid growing allegations of anti-Semitism against members of Congress, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.In the press release, Scott said that America must fight against anti-Semitism and make sure that these incidents do not divide us.&ldquo;The unfortunate rise in these incidents across the country must be met with swift and unwavering condemnation,&quot; Scott said. &quot;We must stand together against racism and bigotry by ensuring that justice is served against those who seek to divide us.&quot;The bill was introduced and passed in the Senate in 2016, but according to <a href="https://www.jns.org/anti-semitism-awareness-act-reintroduced-by-house-reps/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Jewish News Syndicate</a>, was not put up for a vote in the House of Representatives due to a timing constraint. According to the bill, the Department of Education would be forced to use the State Department&rsquo;s definition of anti-Semitism when investigating possible violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs, an international Israel education organization, told Campus Reform the group is supportive of this bill and agree that anti-Semitism on college campuses is a huge issue.&quot;We fully support this legislation and thank Senators Scott and Casey. As ant-Semitism grows on campuses across America, it is more important than ever for Jewish students to be protected from this rising hate,&rdquo; Rothstein said. &ldquo;Adopting a clear definition of antisemitism for law enforcement to use when investigating unlawful conduct -- one that has been accepted by 31 nations -- is an important step in this direction.&quot;Scott&#39;s office, when contacted by Campus Reform, referred back to the senator&#39;s quote from the press release.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11577" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Temple U confirms Marc Lamont Hill still employed after Israel remarks]</a>During a recent interview with Fox &amp; Friends, Scott referenced a drastic recent spike in reported anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses, many of which Campus Reform has documented. Multiple student protests and student governments have pushed for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions measures, among the <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11962" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">most recent being Brown University</a>. These measures are viewed by many pro-Israel individuals and groups as anti-Semitic.The University of North Carolina-Asheville recently <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11719" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hosted</a> Women&#39;s March co-president Tamika Mallory, who previously failed to condemn Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan, widely perceived to be anti-Semitic, has referred to Adolf Hitler as a &quot;very great man&quot; and compared Jewish people to &quot;termites.&quot; And, at the University of Michigan, a professor <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11317" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">refused to write a letter of recommendation</a> for a student seeking to study abroad because the program was based in Israel.&nbsp;More notably, an &quot;outwardly observant Jew and Zionist&quot; administrator at the City University of New York in September <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11277" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">demanded</a> that his school provide security from what he described as a &quot;coordinated harassment and discrimination campaign&quot; that had him &quot;fearing for his life.&quot; In yet another example, a University of Maryland professor, who is Jewish, alleged in May 2018 that she was fired because of her pro-Israel views.&ldquo;Once my involvement with Israel became political, that is when things started to change,&quot; the professor <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10949" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> at the time.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/asabes10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@asabes10</a>

A new bill in Congress aims to crack down on anti-Semitism on college campuses.

Senators aim to crack down on campus anti-Semitism, of which there is plenty

Thousands joined in Women&rsquo;s Marches in cities around the country on Saturday, protesting in support of a variety of feminist causes.The march comes amid increased scrutiny of the group&#39;s leaders&#39; outspoken support of Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who has referred to Jewish people as &ldquo;termites&rdquo; and &ldquo;satanic,&quot; among other things. Specifically, Tamika Mallory, co-President of the Women&rsquo;s March, called Farrakhan &ldquo;the greatest of all time,&rdquo; a comment that sparked nationwide outrage and led to the Democratic National Committee and NAACP boycotting the march.&nbsp;The University of North Carolina-Asheville, however, recently <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11719" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">defended</a> hosting Mallory during the week of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, despite an <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11755" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">online petition</a> that has amassed at least 3,500 signatures.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11755" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UNC-Asheville faces pressure to disinvite pro-Farrakhan Women&#39;s March speaker]</a>But what do attendees of the Women&#39;s March think of the support of Farrakhan? Do they stand by Mallory&rsquo;s comments?&nbsp;Campus Reform&#39;s Cabot Phillips to the National Women&rsquo;s March in Washington, D.C. to find out.&nbsp;Watch the full video to see what they had to say:&nbsp; <center><iframe width="650" height="366" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v__02vdJX2k" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></center> Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/Cabot_Phillips" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@Cabot_Phillips</a>

Thousands of protesters descended upon the nation's capital on Saturday.

VIDEO: Campus Reform confronts Women's March protesters over anti-semitism, Farrakhan

<a href="https://www.nationalsjp.org/" style="text-decoration: none;">&nbsp;Students for Justice in Palestine</a> will host its annual summit Nov. 16-18 at the University of California-Los Angeles, despite intense opposition from members of the student body, school officials, and the Los Angeles city council.&nbsp;Eight percent of all undergraduate students at UCLA in 2017 identified as Jewish, while four percent of graduate students identified as the same, according to the Jewish advocacy organization <a href="https://www.hillel.org/college-guide/list/record/university-of-california--los-angeles" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hillel</a>.Calls for the conference to be canceled or postponed have steadily become louder, especially after the recent synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. According to SJP, <a href="https://www.nationalsjp.org/ucla.html" style="text-decoration: none;">UCLA sent a cease-and-desist letter to the group on Oct. 31, citing a trademark violation</a> of its mascot &quot;associated with a Palestinian kite which some may interpret as an intention to endorse violence,&quot; while on Nov. 6, the Los Angeles City Council <a href="http://jewishjournal.com/news/nation/241477/city-council-unanimously-approves-resolution-ucla-cancel-nsjp-event/" style="text-decoration: none;">voted</a> to ask UCLA to cancel the conference entirely, saying it will &ldquo;promote anti-Semitism,&quot; <a href="http://jewishjournal.com/news/nation/241477/city-council-unanimously-approves-resolution-ucla-cancel-nsjp-event/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the Jewish Journal reported</a>.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11509" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Dozens of UMich faculty back prof denying student recommendation for Israel trip]</a>In response, SJP leaders doubled down, releasing a <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddXPrcK8TkWHyxKQ444_gdyneNtXiyabRNmWALgJ_7oYblBg/viewform?fbclid=IwAR0cVKvUXAGLPryaCR7udcwLkWEekf6zUwUyNuaW9CoNY41QsZRsFocqUsg" style="text-decoration: none;">letter</a> in which they asked UCLA to &quot;take extraordinary measures to protect the safety of conference attendees&quot; and that there was &quot;ongoing harassment of Muslim students on our campus by outside groups and individuals.&quot;More than 20 UCLA faculty members and dozens of graduate and undergraduate students signed that letter, which goes on to say that while SJP is anti-Zionist, it is not anti-Semitic. The letter claims that on Nov. 6, multiple Muslim students were violently harassed.&nbsp;&quot;We know that Zionism is ethnic cleansing, destruction, mass expulsion, apartheid, and death, but it is also something very tangible,&quot; the conference website <a href="https://www.nationalsjp.org/2018-conference.html" style="text-decoration: none;">states</a>. &quot;The reason we can have hope is that Zionism is a human ideology and a set of laws that have been challenged and can be destroyed.&quot;&nbsp;A member of the Jewish organization Yad Yamin said in a <a href="http://jewishjournal.com/news/nation/241442/anti-semitism-protest-held-ucla-tuesday/" style="text-decoration: none;">phone interview</a> with the Jewish Journal that the language used was considered anti-Semitic under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11317" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: College: Prof&#39;s refusal to write Israel letter &#39;disappointing&#39;]</a>In response, SJP says that &ldquo;regardless of significant debates over the definition of anti-Semitism, NSJP&rsquo;s activities cannot be condemned prima facie as anti-Semitic (and, in fact, the NSJP conference includes a workshop specifically devoted to understanding and confronting anti-Semitism).&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;Even hate speech is protected under the First Amendment,&quot; Jewish UCLA student Aaron Boudaie told Campus Reform. &quot;While still defending free speech, it&rsquo;s up to the Jewish community and our allies to condemn bigotry and educate people about the true face of those who demonize Zionists and harass Jewish students on campus.&rdquo;&ldquo;I have heard that people throw the term &lsquo;anti-Semitism&rsquo; when someone criticizes the actions of the Israeli government,&quot; a UCLA political science student who asked to remain anonymous told Campus Reform. &quot;There is a big distinction...criticizing the actions of Israeli government is not anti-Semitism.&rdquo;UCLA will host the event inside of Ackerman Student Union and will deploy dozens of officers to provide security.&nbsp;UCLA, SJP, multiple faculty members, and the L.A. city council did not respond to multiple requests for comment in time for press.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/Author/?AuthorID=4636237" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Follow the author of this article here.</a>

Students, faculty, and even Los Angeles city council members have so far called on the student group to cancel the conference, claiming it "promote[s] anti-Semitism."

UCLA hosts Palestinian conference amid 'anti-Semitism' claims

A committee of self-described &ldquo;liberal and progressive&rdquo; academics penned an op-ed last week warning against a new bill designed to protect Jewish students.&nbsp;Introduced by Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/2940/text" style="text-decoration:none;">Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2018</a> aims to create a &ldquo;definition of anti-Semitism for the enforcement of Federal antidiscrimination laws concerning education programs or activities.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10765" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Public university bans Jewish group from campus over fliers]</a>The bill was first introduced by Scott in November 2016, in the wake of concern over religious and racially motivated hate crimes. Since then, it has gained bipartisan support from senators including Bob Casey (D-PA) and Ron Wyden (D-UT).&nbsp;&quot;It is incredibly important that we work together to stamp out anti-Semitism,&quot; Sen. Scott <a href="https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/with-attacks-on-the-rise-senators-scott-casey-introduce-bipartisan-anti-semitism-awareness-act" style="text-decoration:none;">said</a> in 2016, referring to a previous version of the bill. &ldquo;By clarifying exactly what anti-Semitism is, we will leave no question as to what constitutes an anti-Semitic incident.&quot;With the bill now before U.S Congress, however, the <a href="https://thirdnarrative.org/get-involved/alliance-for-academic-freedom/" style="text-decoration:none;">Alliance for Academic Freedom</a>&mdash;a membership club of roughly 200 professors&mdash;is worried that the initiative will &ldquo;chill&rdquo; criticism of Israel.&nbsp;&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t believe that Congress should be in the business of setting forth official definitions of anti-Semitism,&rdquo; AAF chair Cary Nelson wrote in <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/06/12/criticism-anti-semitism-awareness-act-opinion" style="text-decoration:none;">an op-ed</a> for Inside Higher Ed last week.&nbsp;&ldquo;Sometimes anti-Zionism constitutes anti-Semitism; sometimes it doesn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;Regardless, Congress has no business deciding when it does or doesn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9064" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Here&rsquo;s why David Horowitz didn&rsquo;t speak at UC-Berkeley]</a>Nelson&rsquo;s main concern with the bill appears to stem from fears that its definition of anti-semitism could discourage political speech.&nbsp;Indeed, some definitions proposed by the bill do include political criticism, such as applying &ldquo;double standards&rdquo; to Israel that are not expected of other countries, but the bill also includes non-political definitions of anti-Semitism.&nbsp;&ldquo;Calling for, aiding, or justifying the the killing or harming of Jews&rdquo; as well as &ldquo;denying Israel the right to exist,&rdquo; would constitute anti-Semitism under the new bill, which refers to the <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/fs/2010/122352.htm" style="text-decoration:none;">definition of anti-Semitism</a> adopted by the U.S. State Department in 2010.Campus Reform asked Nelson if he would be supportive of the bill if the definition of anti-Semitism were narrower, but he demurred.&nbsp;&ldquo;Any Congressionally endorsed definition would create problems,&rdquo; Nelson asserted. &ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t just that the definition is overbroad for campus application. Discrimination and severe harassment are based on evidence, not definitions of speech.&rdquo;He also worried that passage of the bill would facilitate intimidation among professors who are critical of Israel, saying it might aid &ldquo;those who would look over the shoulder of faculty who are teaching in this area.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=8938" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Anti-Semitic flyers attacking &#39;Jewish privilege&#39; appear at UIC]</a>Though Sen. Scott&rsquo;s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this criticism, the lawmaker&rsquo;s press releases addressing the bill suggest that he is primarily concerned with students, not faculty.&nbsp;&ldquo;With recent reports showing a significant increase in anti-Semitism on college campuses across America, it is essential the Department of Education has a clear and concise definition of what constitutes anti-Semitism,&rdquo; Scott <a href="https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/in-the-news/bill-to-fight-rising-anti-semitism-on-campus-introduced-in-congress" style="text-decoration:none;">said</a> in a recent press release.&nbsp;<a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2016/tables/table-1" style="text-decoration:none;">The FBI reports</a> that more than 50 percent of religion-motivated hate crimes reported in 2016 were spurred by anti-Jewish bias, though only 1.9 percent of Americans are Jewish, <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/" style="text-decoration:none;">according</a> to the Pew Research Center.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/Toni_Airaksinen" style="text-decoration:none;">@Toni_Airaksinen</a>&nbsp;

Liberal academics blast bill intended to fight anti-Semitism

At a recent town hall meeting, Rutgers University President Robert Barchi pointedly refused to condemn alleged anti-Semitic comments made by three Rutgers professors.
<a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/11/20/rutgers-president-defends-academic-freedom-of-three-professors-blasted-for-comments-on-israel-jews/">According to The Algemeiner</a>, Barchi first sought to make a clear distinction between free speech and harassment, and argued that the professors had the right to say what they wanted, a right protected by the First Amendment.
<a href="../?ID=10058">[RELATED: Students pressure Rutgers to discipline anti-Semitic prof]</a>
Likewise protected, he said, would be the right to draw a swastika &ldquo;on the side of a building on campus,&rdquo; even if it were to violate rules against vandalism, whereas &ldquo;if you take that swastika and put it on the door of a dormitory, that&rsquo;s not protected.&rdquo;
Barchi then turned his attention to the allegations of anti-Semitism on the part of three professor, attempting to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the claims by remarking that &ldquo;the one thing that is common to all of these is that they were all brought forward by The Algemeiner.&rdquo;
One professor, Michael Chikindas, was <a href="http://www.israellycool.com/2017/10/23/anti-zionist-not-antisemite-of-the-day-michael-chikindas/">accused by Israellycool</a> of posting a multitude of anti-Semitic Facebook posts that have since been deleted,
Barchi admitted that Chikindas had made &ldquo;crude jokes about Israel, Judaism, women, homosexuality, a whole lot of things which most of us would find repugnant,&rdquo; adding that while legal scholars had confirmed that the professor&rsquo;s speech was protected, the university is conducting an investigation to determine whether the posts might &ldquo;create an environment...that would compromise his ability to teach or do research.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=10045">[RELATED: Rutgers disavows prof&rsquo;s overtly anti-Semitic Facebook posts]</a>
Barchi then went on to defend Professor Jasbir Puar, who <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/Assets/PubMaterials/978-0-8223-6918-9_601.pdf">previously claimed</a> that the Israeli Defense Forces have &ldquo;shown a demonstrable pattern over decades of sparing life, of shooting to maim rather than to kill," and once gave a <a href="http://fairnesstoisraelatvassar.blogspot.com/p/critique-of-jasbir-puar-feb-3-lecture.html">speech</a> in which she declared that &ldquo;we need BDS as part of organized resistance and armed resistance in Palestine as well.&rdquo;
Barchi described Puar as a &ldquo;well-respected scholar,&rdquo; saying it was a legitimate exercise of academic freedom to, for instance, allege that Israel mines the organs of Palestinian men for scientific research.
Barchi likewise stood up for Professor Mazen Adi, who previously worked as a spokesperson for the Bashar Assad regime in Syria, and once <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2008/gal3349.doc.htm">alleged</a> that Israeli forces deliberately seek to murder civilians and bury enemy soldiers alive.
As of press time, an online <a>petition</a> calling on Rutgers to fire Adi had garnered 4,891 signatures, but Barchi insisted that Adi &ldquo;has not said or done anything in his academic life here that would be actionable,&rdquo; and has &ldquo;changed directions&rdquo; since ending his work with the Syrian government.
<a href="../?ID=10131">[RELATED: Rutgers hires war-crime &lsquo;apologist&rsquo; to teach international law]</a>
&ldquo;We are faced with the difficult challenge to thread the needle on free speech and academic freedom,&rdquo; Barchi remarked before returning to his earlier criticism of the media.
&ldquo;I just ask you to keep in mind when you hear things and those things get picked up by another newspaper, there is very often a back-story to it,&rdquo; he told the audience. &ldquo;Trace it back to where it&rsquo;s coming from and ask why is it coming from there and what&rsquo;s going on, and you may often get a little different perspective on those happenings.&rdquo;
Campus Reform reached out to Barchi for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/MattAdimando">@MattAdimando</a>

Rutgers prez stands up for profs accused of anti-Semitism

Linda Sarsour, a pro-Palestine activist known for her controversial progressive views, is set to be a panelist at an anti-Semitism event hosted by a private university in New York City.
According to the description of the <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/antisemitism-and-the-struggle-for-justice-tickets-39696960678?aff=erelexpmlt">Nov. 28 event</a>, which is backed in part by the New School Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism program, Sarsour will be accompanied by several other liberal activists, including &ldquo;Democracy Now&rdquo; host Amy Goodman, who will serve as a moderator for the panel.
<a href="../?ID=10173">[RELATED: College to host Linda Sarsour at 'women of color' conference]</a>
&ldquo;Antisemitism is harmful and real,&rdquo; the description page reads. &ldquo;But when antisemitism is redefined as criticism of Israel, critics of Israeli policy become accused and targeted more than the growing far-right.&rdquo;
Sarsour&rsquo;s participation in the panel has sparked a flurry of criticism from several national organizations that highlight the activist&rsquo;s view that &ldquo;nothing is creepier than Zionism,&rdquo; <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/20/new-school-under-fire-for-putting-linda-sarsour-on-anti-semitism-panel.html">Fox News reported on Monday</a>.
The <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Bigotrys-leader-514563">Jerusalem Post </a><a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Bigotrys-leader-514563">Editorial Board</a> also blasted the event, calling it a forum of &ldquo;antisemites on antisemitism,&rdquo; while the <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/11/19/the-new-schools-fake-panel-to-combat-anti-semitism/">New York Post Editorial Board</a> argued that the panel is designed &ldquo;to promote Israel-bashing.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Sarsour is a well-known Muslim and Palestinian activist who supports a Palestinian state but denies Jews the right to national self-determination,&rdquo; The Jerusalem Post wrote. &ldquo;Moreover, she has appeared alongside a convicted Palestinian terrorist murderer whom she has lauded for her &lsquo;resistance&rsquo; to the Zionist occupation.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=9217">[RELATED: VIDEO: Linda Sarsour mocks student for questioning FGM tweet]</a>
The controversial panel is also quickly gaining formidable opposition online, with over 11,000 people signing a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/tell-the-new-school-linda-sarsour-does-not-belong-on-anti-semitism-panel">Change.org</a> petition organized by a progressive pro-Israel group to &ldquo;Stop Anti-Semitism at The New School.&rdquo;
&ldquo;The gross misrepresentation of Zionism espoused by these panelists, and their explicit endorsement of anti-Semitism couched as anti-Zionism, strongly correlates with a horrifying increase in anti-Semitism today,&rdquo; the petition asserts.
&ldquo;We are alarmed by the inclusion of an individual who is neither Jewish nor a scholar on anti-Semitism, and, ironically, has perpetuated anti-Semitic tropes and worked to demonize Jewish Zionists nationwide,&rdquo; it adds, saying, &ldquo;Linda Sarsour has no authority on anti-Semitism, either as a scholar of Jewish history or through lived experience as a Jewish person.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=9127">[RELATED: Sharia supporter to give commencement for CUNY Public Health]</a>
The Chief Executive Officer of the Anti-Defamation League also <a>condemned the panel</a>, tweeting that &ldquo;having Linda Sarsour &amp; head of JVP leading a panel on #antisemitism is like Oscar Meyer leading a panel on vegetarianism.
&ldquo;These panelists know the issue, but unfortunately, from perspective of fomenting it rather than fighting it,&rdquo; he added.
The New School did not immediately respond to Campus Reform&rsquo;s request for comment.
Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav">Nikita Vladimirov</a>