Jewish advocacy organization StandWithUs on Tuesday undertook a campaign to lobby university administrators to end the common practice of college departments and student governments using official university accounts to spread “politicized communications” such as support for the BDS movement.
Official accounts frequently used for such purposes include email accounts, listservs, websites and social media accounts linked to universities.
The use of official accounts in such a manner is generally in violation of codes of conducts at most universities. However, the policy is rarely – if ever – enforced.
In a letter addressed to administrators, StandWithUs urged university presidents and legal officers to issue statements to faculty and students explaining the code of conduct policies and reminding them of the penalties for violating regulations.
StandWithUs noted how common these violations were during the conflict between Israel and Hamas in May. During and after the fighting, there were numerous examples of academic departments, faculty and student governments using official channels to promulgate extreme anti-Israel statements.
The group described the general tone of problematic statements as “[disseminating] politicized communications to students and faculty that marginalize students based on their Jewish ethnicity, Zionist identity, and Israeli national origin.”
They said that campus administrators “play a critical role in creating ethical boundaries and clarifying policies for the university community.”
“We recognize and appreciate the campus environment as a place for diverging viewpoints and discourse. The fundamental pillars of academic freedom and free expression are essential to institutions of higher learning. However, academic departments and student governments should not champion and disseminate one-sided political viewpoints on behalf of a university,” they wrote. “Universities should not be safe harbors for those who disseminate anti-Jewish hate by calling it another name and then dressing it with the university’s imprimatur through the use of the university’s channels.”
They continued: “We also would like to remind your administration that for many Jewish and Israeli students and faculty, Zionism – the right of Jews to self-determination in their ancestral homeland of Israel – is an integral part of their identity, creates a feeling of security as Jews in the diaspora, and forms a fundamental part of their ethnic, ancestral, and religious heritage. In this way, Zionism is as much a part of the identity of many Jews as wearing a kippah (yarmulke) or maintaining a kosher diet.”