URBANA — A complaint filed by two students accusing University of Illinois administrators of not doing enough to address anti-Semitism on campus has drawn a pair of dueling open letters from different groups of faculty members.
After the complaint, Jewish professors issued an open letter in support of the administration that was signed this week by more than 60 faculty members, including both Jewish and non-Jewish professors.
“While there has been a rising tide of antisemitism in our region and across the country over the past four years, thanks to your efforts, we feel very much at home here on this campus,” they wrote.
This open letter prompted another, signed by 16 faculty members, that supported the students’ original complaint and argued that the first open letter was problematic in and of itself.
“We find faculty attempts to undermine student complaints about anti-Semitism create a chilling atmosphere on campus, that seeks to silence Jewish student voices,” the second letter said. “We decry faculty attempts to undermine this process and stand with our students and their right to be heard.”
In March, two students filed a complaint against the UI with the U.S. Department of Education, alleging violations of the Civil Rights Act.
They cited examples in recent years of swastikas drawn on or near campus, vandalism to the menorah at the Chabad Center, opposition from the Students for Justice in Palestine student group, a resolution passed by the Illinois Student Government tying the “destruction of Palestinian lands” with divesting from the police and a presentation to residence-hall advisers about “Palestinian Resistance to 70 Years of Israeli Terror.”
The complaint was publicized last week by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
The complaint was also filed with the UI’s accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission, which concluded in August that “the matters raised in the complaint do not indicate substantive noncompliance” with its requirements.
The letter in support of Chancellor Robert Jones argued that the complaint “mischaracterizes you and your administration.”
“We believe that your administration has consistently opposed anti-Semitism and has supported efforts designed to curtail the spread of racism of all forms on our campus,” it said.
It said the vandalism of the off-campus menorah over three years does not “constitute a ‘campaign’” and that Jones can’t be held responsible for it.
And the signers of the first letter argued that the statements from the Students for Justice in Palestine are free speech.
“Nearly all of these statements on the part of the Palestinian students and their supporters are protected under the First Amendment, and therefore, the university administration cannot be held responsible for not suppressing them or punishing those who expressed these statements,” the letter said, noting that student government is an independent body.
In the case of the presentation, they said the administration handled it “forcefully and effectively,” with a mass email from Jones.
And they said criticism of anti-Zionism should not be conflated with anti-Semitism.
“A college campus should certainly not sink into name-calling and mudslinging when it engages in political debate, and we call for all parties to respect the seriousness of the issues involved and to make their case in a manner consonant with Illinois values,” they wrote. “But we do not believe that the Department of Education is the right arbiter to settle how this or any other legitimate political debate should be conducted.”
Alyza Lewin, president of the Brandeis Center, disagreed, arguing that Zionism is “for many Jews an integral part of what it means to them to be Jewish.”
And Emeritus Professor Cary Nelson, one of the faculty members who signed the second open letter, disagreed with the first letter’s assertions.
“I’ve been convinced that over the last five or six years, the anti- Semitic climate on campus has been increasing,” he said.
He said student debates he’s attended over the years have increased in their intensity.
“It’s gotten fairly intense on campus,” Nelson said.