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Michigan. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed criminal charges
on Wednesday against 11 people who participated in anti-Israel protests at the University of Michigan in spring. Two of the defendants were charged with trespassing for “failing to vacate the [on-campus] encampment” which police officers cleared on May 21. Another seven defendants were charged with both trespassing and obstructing a police officer, a felony, with prosecutors saying they “attempted to halt or push back the police by making direct contact with the officers’ bodies.” The final two defendants, one university alum and one unaffiliated with the school, are accused of attacking a pro-Israel counter-protester on April 25, with one defendant
facing an additional charge of “ethnic intimidation.” In a statement, AG Nessel said “The right to free speech and assembly is fundamental [...] However, violent and criminal behavior, or acts that trample on another’s rights, cannot be tolerated." We applaud the AG for holding people accountable for their actions against Jewish students.
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SUNY Purchase. President Milagros Peña of the State University of New York (SUNY) Purchase announced that she would leave the position at the end of the academic year. Peña angered anti-Israel protesters on campus because she cleared an encampment earlier this year. At the same time, she also came under criticism for how she handled complaints of antisemitism on campus. Just this week, Esti Heller, a 2024 graduate of SUNY Purchase, authored an
op-ed in which she accused university leaders of violating student rights and rewarding antisemitic rhetoric. She described the “empty promises”
of Peña after an Israeli flag was vandalized and a Hillel sukkah was overturned. Esti lamented that the only voices being heard at the university’s negotiating table were those using threats and force. She continued by describing a time when she warned administrators and police that a group that has fundraised for anti-Israel terrorists planned to host an event on campus; she saw no response besides a quick “thank you.”
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Macalester. Administrators at Minnesota’s Macalester College have unveiled a portal
for students, faculty and staff to submit feedback on a student proposal for the college to divest from several companies connected to Israel, including Volvo, Chevron, Intel and Barclays. This comes after College President Suzanne Rivera appointed an ad hoc Social Responsibility Committee (SCR) in April 2024 to review this proposal, as well as a student proposal to remove certain institutions from the college’s list of approved study-away locations. The SCR chose not to refer the study-away proposal to the board, saying it didn’t fall under the board’s purview. However, the SCR emphatically
recommended the board “give full consideration” to the divestment proposal, saying the relevant companies are “partly responsible” for suffering in Gaza and sharing their belief that “the College should not be associated with the conduct of the Israeli government and its private partners.”
DEEPER: BDS proposals are divisive, and as our analysis shows, they’re counter-productive to the goals of universities and colleges.
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Brown. More than 2,400 students, alumni, faculty, community groups and parents of students at Brown University have signed a letter to university leaders urging them to uninvite an anti-Israel UN official from speaking at a September 16 event on the Rhode Island campus called “Anatomy of a Genocide: A Failure of the International System?” The letter
points to UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s frequent antisemitic and anti-Israel statements over the past decade, including several claims that people were being subjugated or controlled by the “Jewish lobby” and a statement that the victims of the October 7 massacre were “not killed because of their Judaism, but in reaction to the oppression of Israel.” Citing condemnations of Albanese from the governments of France, Germany, the United States and the UN, the signatories insist her “blatant antisemitism and support for terrorism against Jews and Israeli civilians places the Jewish and Israeli communities on campus in a fearful and
potentially dangerous situation.”
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Northwestern. Northwestern University has canceled fall quarter classes taught by Professor Steven Thrasher while Thrasher is investigated for his role in anti-Israel encampments last spring. The investigation will likely focus on Thrasher’s “objectivity” and his use of social media. Reports show Thrasher regularly promotes anti-Israel rhetoric
on social media, accusing Israel of “white supremacy and settler colonialism” and repeatedly comparing Israel to the Nazis.
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NYU. New York University will hire its first-ever Title VI coordinator
by the end of the semester. The coordinator will oversee the university’s compliance with certain federal laws on discrimination and harassment, as well as on-campus Title VI complaints and investigations. One university spokesperson said the Title VI coordinator will help ensure “NYU responds adequately and consistently to allegations of discrimination and harassment based on all protected traits.” NYU is one of the first higher education institutions to create such a position, alongside schools like Stanford and Rutgers. Notably, this announcement follows a confidential settlement in a lawsuit filed by Jewish students who accused NYU of being indifferent toward
incidents of antisemitism since October 7.
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New Semester, More New Policies. Universities across the United States are updating their campus policies
to better protect students from the violent and chaotic protests we saw in spring. While we can’t capture every new policy from every school, some of the key changes across campuses focus around time, place and manner restrictions. At Indiana University in Bloomington, students may no longer engage in “expressive activity” between 11 PM and 6 AM. Northwestern University has banned protests before 3 PM on weekdays, and Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania requires all rallies and demonstrations to wrap up within two hours. Like many other campuses, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland now requires that students receive administrative
approval for protests, and at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the university is now able to break up any demonstration that draws more than 25 people. |
