Campus Watch July 20, 2023

AJC Urges Opposition to Ethnic Studies Bill

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) chapters in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego are urging members of the California State Senate Education Committee to vote against a bill that would allow a council of people who supported the initial ethnic studies curriculum draft the ability to veto the content of the curriculum.

In a letter obtained by the Journal, the AJC chapters wrote that the bill, AB 506, would bestow veto power to the CSU Council on Ethnic Studies. “To the best of our knowledge this group is a voluntary collaborative that is using the CSU name and not an organization officially appointed or endorsed to speak on behalf of the CSU,” the AJC chapters wrote.  They added that the Council “supported the first draft of the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC), which encountered substantial opposition across the political spectrum in California and was particularly denounced for the inclusion of antisemitic content” and that a previous iteration of the bill would have established the faculty senate as a “safeguard” against the Council. “That important safeguard has now been eliminated,” the AJC chapters wrote. 

AZ Hotel Cancels College Republicans United Convention Featuring White Nationalist Nick Fuentes

The Arizona hotel that was hosting a College Republicans United (CRU) event on July 30 featuring white nationalist Nick Fuentes has reportedly canceled the event.

The Algemeiner reported that the hotel, the Hassayampa Inn, told the outlet that the hotel was informed that the event was a “college students award ceremony” when it was booked but now the hotel will not be providing their venue for the event. 

The hotel’s cancellation comes after three local GOP parties claimed that they never provided authorization for the CRU to list their names as sponsors for the convention and alleged that the CRU didn’t tell them that Fuentes was speaking. In a tweet, the CRU argued that “various groups agreed to support our students” and that “Fuentes has a message that resonates with a lot of college age students.” The Arizona Mirror reported that Fuentes is a “Holocaust-denier who routinely makes antisemitic remarks.”

New York Gov Signs Bill Requiring State-Funded Colleges to Publicly Report Hate Crimes

On July 11, New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) signed a bill requiring state-funded colleges to publicly report all hate crimes on their websites.

The bill also requires state-funded colleges to tell students the procedures on how exactly the college will investigate hate crimes. “I want every single college to have to adopt and implement these programs so every single student when they leave the security of their home, feels just as secure on a college campus,” Hochul said, per the New York Post. 

Jewish Students Say They Don’t Feel Safe at University of Amsterdam 

The student newspaper Folia published a report on July 3 quoting Jewish students who are claiming that they do not feel safe on campus i  due to what Folia described as “strong anti-Israel sentiment.”

The Folia report, which also received coverage in the Algemeiner, described how a week earlier, protesters at the Netherlands university occupied a campus building with calls for “decarbonizing, decolonizing, and democratizing” the university. A sign stating, “Cut ties with Israeli protesters. Free Palestine” was hung from a balcony; Tamar Efrati, an Israeli Jewish student who wears a Star of David necklace, told the student paper that a protester called her a “dirty Zionist.” Additionally, protesters issued calls for an intifada. An anonymous university law student similarly told Folia that he had sent a letter to the university saying that he now feels uncomfortable wearing his yarmulke on campus. 

A university spokesperson told Folia they “were shocked by the banners calling for a boycott and the proclamations calling for an intifada. We completely understand and deeply regret that Jewish students did not feel safe due to an implicit call for violence.”

More Than 230 Jewish Scholars, Academics Warn of “Censorious Culture” in Academia

An open letter signed by more than 230 Jewish scholars and academics published in Fathom Journal warned of the “censorious culture” perpetuated by the left in academia.

The letter, whose signatories included George Mason University Professor David Bernstein and Harvard Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz, argued that too many universities have imposed “a set of moral and intellectual attitudes that restrict critical inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and intellectual openness.” The letter also argued that there has been an “ascendency of an ideology that reduces people to ‘oppressed’ and ‘oppressors’ and categorizes individuals into monolithic group identities poses a particular threat to the Jewish people. In this stark, neo-Manichean worldview, Jews are frequently grouped with the privileged, and Israel is dogmatically singled out as an oppressor-state – a shallow dichotomy that foments new variants of antisemitism and reinforces old ones.” The letter concluded with a call for “leaders and educators to stand up for our deeply held liberal principles and our own tradition of ‘argument for the sake of heaven.’”