No Moral Leadership at American University

On October 7, 2023, the Iran-sponsored terrorist group Hamas invaded Israel, killing over 1,200 innocent people and kidnapping another 240 in a day of unspeakable horrors. Right away, the level of hostility toward Jews and Israelis on American college campuses – already at historic levels-reached alarming new highs, with 73% of American Jewish college students saying that they experienced or witnessed antisemitic activity or speech within the last year. At American University (AU), on October 19, 2023, two room doors and a bathroom on campus were vandalized with swastikas and a Nazi slogan. Events escalated from there, and now the student government has scheduled a campuswide vote to stigmatize and boycott the Jewish state. The AU administration must show moral courage and cancel this hateful vote.

In January 2024, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish on Campus filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights alleging rampant and pervasive antisemitism at AU. Sadly, the examples cited are legion. According to the complaint, one student was yelled at on campus by protestors who called him a “Zionist pig,” while two individuals on scooters wearing keffiyehs and face masks spat at him. The student filed a report with the university but received no response. After that, posters featuring the same student were vandalized, with his face crossed out, a swastika was drawn on the poster, and the words “Death to the Zionists Hitler was right” written on it. The Brandeis Center complaint also states that the university had instituted disciplinary proceedings against five students who filmed their anti-Israel peers ripping down posters of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas. At the same time, the vandals themselves, unaccountably, were not investigated.

Nothing more clearly demonstrates that hostility and bias have gotten out of hand at AU than the Student Senate’s April 21, 2024, passage of “Resolution-018,” which calls for the university to boycott, divest from, and sanction (BDS) Israel, a strategy that attempts to “de-normalize” Israel and ultimately end its existence. As AU Hillel wrote, the resolution is “not about shaping university policy [but] about demonizing Israel, normalizing hateful rhetoric, and further dividing the campus community.”

To their eternal credit, the AU administration was firm in response. President Sylvia Burwell insisted that AU would not comply with Resolution-018, “Such actions threaten academic freedom, the respectful free expression of ideas and views, and the values of inclusion and belonging that are central to our community.” Nevertheless, on September 19, 2024, the Senate scheduled a BDS referendum for the October 8, 2024 student ballot, which also includes student government elections. There is substantial research documenting that BDS resolution campaigns on campus lead to a rise in antisemitic sentiment and activity.

Now is the moment for AU to do the right thing on behalf of its diverse student community and firmly held values of tolerance, free expression, and a nurturing campus environment. Brave peer institutions have shown the way. At Vanderbilt University, for instance, Chancellor Daniel Diermeier prohibited a planned BDS vote in his statement, noting that state and federal laws prohibit the university’s participation in “boycotts against friendly countries.” Many other elite schools, like Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell, have adopted institutional neutrality policies, pledging that they will no longer issue statements on social and political events. Emerson College notably emphasized in its institutional neutrality declaration that it will not “consider political pressure in allocating resources, including its endowment investments, or when selecting strategic partners.”

AU thus faces a crossroads with two clear paths to follow. The easy path, which has been adopted by the cowardly and the morally bankrupt throughout history, would be to indulge the haters, to turn a blind eye or cower in fear and let them continue to marginalize and terrorize the approximately 20% of AU students who are Jewish or Israeli. The higher way is defending the beleaguered, ensuring that all students are welcome at AU, regardless of their religion, ethnicity, or national origin. Choosing this path will earn AU’s administration the appreciation of the ages.

The choice is now. Protecting students from the forces of prejudice when they come from a sometimes unpopular minority, like Israelis and Jews, is not always popular – but it is always right. President Burwell and team, please stand on the right side of history and cancel this travesty of a referendum.