Jewish groups at the University of California, Davis, said in a letter to the school’s chancellor that hate incidents are “continuously being swept under the rug.”
The letter came a week after anti-Semitic fliers were posted on campus. The fliers, blaming Jews for spreading sexual assault allegations against newly sworn-in Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, have been posted on several campuses and at other venues across the country.
“While the fliers were taken down as soon as they were reported, the campus’ response to this incident is insufficient and does not offer specific support for Jewish students,” more than a dozen Jewish groups said in the letter.
The groups called on Chancellor Gary May to adjust the statement he sent out in the wake of the incident and to “offer more support for the Jewish community.” May condemned the fliers, said they do “not represent who we are as a community” and violate the campus posting policy.
Their letter, which noted at least three recent anti-Semitic incidents on campus, also directed students in need of support to the Student Health and Counseling Services and the Harassment and Discrimination and Prevention Program.
It called on May and the campus administration to send an email to the entire university condemning anti-Semitism and acknowledging the impact that the recent incident has had on the Jewish community and the students at UC Davis; to brief the campus mental health services on the incident and offer services that specifically address the incident; host a training seminar on campus on how to deal with such anti-Semitic incidents; and sponsor a town hall with UC Davis officials to address the “anti-Semitic climate” on campus.
On Monday, an editorial appeared in the student newspaper, The Aggie, titled “University offers insufficient response to anti-Semitic fliers.”
“[T]he university’s response was disorganized, with grammatical errors and incorrect links to unrelated campus resources appearing in the initial draft of the chancellor’s statement. This situation warrants not only an official university response, at a bare minimum, but a strong stance. Not once did the chancellor mention the Jewish community or Jews in his statement, the group most affected by this aimed attack,” the editorial read.