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Columbia. When Columbia University finally started to hold students accountable for breaking campus policy and even the law, it was a turning point. Not so fast. According to information delivered to the House Education and Workforce Committee, of the 40 students arrested or disciplined for protests on April 18, only two remain suspended. Of the 80 students arrested between April 29 and May 1 — including 22 students arrested for the infamous occupation of Hamilton Hall — only three students face interim suspension and one more faces disciplinary probation. Moreover, the University has not charged a single protester with hate speech. Committee Chair Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC-5) said, “Breaking into campus buildings or creating antisemitic hostile environments like the encampment should never be given a single degree of latitude—the university’s willingness to do just that is reprehensible.” We couldn’t agree more.

MORE: Yesterday, the House Education and Workforce Committee issued six subpoenas to Columbia for more information about its response to antisemitism.

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Tulane. Prior to Tulane University’s first day of the new academic year, pamphlets were distributed calling the New Orleans school “Genocide University,” referring to Tulane’s president as a “fascist” and calling on the University to divest from Israel. Last fall, its campus was the scene of an attack where anti-Israel protesters assaulted a student after he tried to prevent the burning of an Israeli flag.

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University of Texas, Dallas. As classes begin at the University of Texas, Dallas, the local Students for Justice in Palestine chapter is calling for protests to “stop the normalization” of any organization that supports Jewish students and interests, including ADL and Hillel. Hillel in particular has been a frequent target for anti-Israel activists, with groups on many campuses demanding that Hillel be banned entirely from universities.

As you can see, SJP isn’t being subtle: the social media post uses the bloody red hands symbol, which harkens back to the Ramallah lynching of 2000, when two IDF reservists were lynched by a massive mob in the West Bank after they made a wrong turn in the region. We are watching these kinds of efforts closely as they threaten to spread across campuses this semester.

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California. The President of the University of California system, Michael Drake, directed the chancellors of all 10 UC universities on Monday to strictly enforce rules banning masking, encampments and the blocking of university pathways, noting that concerns over free speech must not “place community members in reasonable fear for their personal safety or infringe on their civil rights.” That same day, California State University Chancellor Mildred García and 23 campus leaders reiterated that campuses “must maintain an environment where its work can be conducted without disruption,” highlighting a university website that lists prohibited activities including “camping, overnight demonstrations, or overnight loitering.”

DEEPER: Read the full statement from ADL’s five California-based regional directors.

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Northwestern. After a tumultuous spring that sparked calls from ADL and other Jewish organizations for Northwestern President Michael Schill to resign, the University announced new measures on Tuesday to combat antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate. In an email to the Northwestern community, Schill discussed updates to the Student Code of Conduct Demonstration Policy, a new “Display Policy” to be introduced in September, “investments in public safety personnel and infrastructure” and new educational resources to facilitate difficult conversations. Schill wrote: “Free expression and academic freedom are the lifeblood of our University, but they must not be used as an excuse for behavior that threatens the core of our mission — a search for enlightenment and knowledge.”

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Summer School. Over the summer, many students stayed on campus to earn extra credits. Anti-Israel protesters had another take on “summer school,” organizing virtual training sessions to prepare students for another semester of encampments and occupations. Led by groups like the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), more than 1,000 students have reportedly enrolled in sessions with names like “The student intifada, the uprising continues.” The National SJP reiterated this goal on X, writing that these summer sessions were created “to sustain and grow the Student Intifada” and that “We are the Revolution.”

DEEPER: These sessions aren’t the first of their kind; ADL has been sounding the alarm bells on summer training sessions led by BDS proponents and other anti-Israel activists since 2013. Read more here.

Students to the Senate. Jewish students shared their experiences with on-campus antisemitism and pushed policymakers to act during a recent roundtable hosted by the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism. Rennie Cohen, a law student at the University of Oklahoma, described his horror as protestors marched through campus flying Hezbollah flags and chanting “glory to the martyrs.” Luda Isakharov, from the University of Oregon, thanked Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) for introducing the Countering Antisemitism Act, but advocacy leaders decried that “the Senate Education Committee, chaired by [Sen.] Bernie Sanders and the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. [Dick] Durbin, have refused to have hearings, let alone consider any legislation to respond to the situation.”

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Tops in Foggy Bottom. George Washington University suspended two student groups, Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, for the duration of the fall semester. Under the suspension, the two groups will not be recognized as registered campus organizations, are prohibited from hosting campus events and will lose all university funding. After this suspension, the groups will be placed on probation for the remainder of the academic year and will be required to seek approval before hosting campus events. These same groups were temporarily suspended last semester after projecting anti-Israel messages including “Divestment from Zionist genocide now” and “Free Palestine From the River to the Sea” on the campus library mere weeks after the 10/7 massacre.

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How to be a Champ. New York Times op-ed columnist Bret Stephens outlined a sample message to students on Tuesday to showcase what university presidents should do to stand up for Jewish students without undermining the “spirit of inquiry” that is so crucial to higher education. Writing as a hypothetical university president, Stephens argues: “at a minimum, we will enforce clearly established ‘time, place and manner’ restrictions, so that the rights of those who protest are never allowed to impinge on the rights of those who don’t. It also means we will invest in serious programming about the Mideast conflict, including by inviting Israeli and Palestinian scholars to campus and hosting moderated debates where you can cheer your own political side but must at least listen to the other. Our goal is never to make you think one way or the other. It’s to make you think, period.”

Dig This Big Rig. As policymakers descend on Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, one Chicago native is using his big rig truck to ensure the 10/7 hostages aren’t forgotten. Jeremiah Smith is driving his “hostage truck” around Chicago 12 hours a day, six days a week, displaying larger-than-life images of Jewish hostages, including his childhood friend Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival. Jeremiah moved in with Hersh’s family when he was 11 years old after being exposed to “a whole lot of drugs, people killing people,” saying now that “I don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t know these people. The Jewish community welcomed me with open arms.” Now, Jeremiah sees the DNC as a “big opportunity” to dispel myths about the Jewish state, combat antisemitism and help to bring the hostages home.

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Bring Them Home. An empty lot near the Democratic convention was transformed by Israeli and American artists into “Hostage Square” on Tuesday, featuring exhibits that honor the victims of the 10/7 massacre and raise awareness for the 105 hostages still held by Hamas. Among the exhibits are giant milk cartons adorned with photos of the eight American hostages, playing off the well-known “missing person” ads. The Israel American Council, who jointly organized the exhibit with the local Chicago community, say the milk cartons were specifically designed to repudiate raucous and violent anti-Israel protests, arguing “This is heart-wrenching stuff. The noise we see out in the streets, these people who burn flags and vandalize buildings and tear things down — they represent a fringe extreme group.” Organizers say the exhibit received hundreds of visitors in a single day.

(Credit: Jacob Magid/Times of Israel)

• Students — how to take action, deal with antisemitism, and organize your community.
• Alumni — how to organize a sign-on letter, answer a fundraising request, or write a letter to a university president.
• Parents — write a letter about commencement, organize a dial day, or get help selecting a college for your student.
• Glossary of Commonly Used Antisemitic Phrases Heard at Protests.
• Campus Antisemitism Report Card — see the grade a college earned in this first-ever report card.
• Report an Antisemitic Incident.
• Are you a student or know one who needs legal help? Contact our Campus Antisemitism Legal Line (CALL), run by ADL, Hillel, the Brandeis Center, and Gibson Dunn. Hundreds of incidents have been reported. You are not alone!

Do you have something to share with us? We are building this as we go — so please email us at [email protected] with any suggestions, questions, photos, and videos.