College campuses are microcosms of pluralism. At their best, campuses can provide space for dialogue and discovery. At their worst, they can become hotbeds of harassment and hate.
Since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, colleges have become tinderboxes for heated protests over the Middle East, often trickling down to interpersonal relationships between students. The results have played out in congressional hearings and civil rights investigations over discrimination against Jewish and Muslim students.
Harvard University, whose response to antisemitism was the subject of congressional subpoenas, formed two presidential task forces — one on combatting antisemitism, the other on combating anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias — both of which recently released preliminary reports.
While Harvard is one elite school and does not represent the wide range of American universities, the recommendations of those task forces offer a few principles that schools nationwide should consider before the fall semester begins. These include: Providing religious accommodations to make every student of faith feel welcome; drafting clear, transparent policies that are evenly enforced on issues like free speech, protests, and harassment; and improving campus dialogue and educational opportunities on controversial issues.
As Diana Eck, a Harvard Divinity School professor who sat on the anti-Muslim bias task force and runs the Pluralism Project to study interfaith relations, points out, some of the challenges inherent in a multicultural environment “stem from our shared ignorance of one another.” “We don’t know very much about the practices and histories of our Jewish or Sikh or Muslim or Hindu neighbors,” Eck said in an interview.
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State law requires a basic level of religious accommodation. But schools can choose to go further in providing an environment that not only accommodates but welcomes students with diverse religious needs. For example, the Harvard report on antisemitism recommends the university expand the availability of kosher hot food and distribute a calendar of Jewish holidays so faculty can avoid conflicts. The report on anti-Muslim bias recommends creating dedicated prayer spaces for Muslim students.
Another theme that emerged from both Harvard reports was a lack of clear procedures for handling complaints related to harassment, discrimination, and bias. Both Jewish and Palestinian students felt their concerns were not taken seriously.
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Colleges can better respond to incidents if they have clear lines between what constitutes free speech and what is harassment, bullying, or discrimination, and if they define in advance the restrictions that apply to protests and the consequences for violating them. Schools must be consistent and even-handed in enforcing policies. Colleges also need university-wide procedures to clarify who is responsible for investigating complaints, what standards will be used, and what the investigatory process looks like. Staff must be trained accordingly.
For example, when the University of Chicago had an encampment protest, the administration issued clear statements explaining the rules around when free speech crosses the line into disruptive behavior and giving examples. It then applied those rules. That is far better policy than the University of Virginia, which published conflicting regulations regarding permitting tents, then updated the rules hours before arresting encampment protesters, UVA’s Cavalier Daily reported.
Some of the most important recommendations are around improving education and dialogue. Ideally, campuses should be places where students can learn about the history, politics, and religion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the broader Middle East. They should be places where students can learn how to have constructive dialogue with those with whom they disagree. If, as reported to the Harvard task force, faculty or teaching fellows harassed Israeli or pro-Israel students, that is antithetical to what a campus culture should be. Both reports suggest ways to improve educational offerings, including hosting public talks between individuals who disagree on an issue, holding faculty lectures on contemporary issues, and funding events that promote student dialogue.
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One potential model can be found at Dartmouth College. Susannah Heschel, chair of Dartmouth’s Jewish studies program, said in an interview that the school has for several years had classes co-taught by scholars in Jewish and Middle Eastern studies who themselves have diverse views. For example, a course on the politics of Israel and Palestine is co-taught by Israeli and Egyptian scholars. Heschel said the goal is not just to bring different views of the material but to model what it means to learn.
When she has co-taught courses, Heschel said, “We asked questions of each other, which set a tone for students that you’re in class to ask questions, to learn, not to make a declaration of ‘this is what I think.’ ” Heschel suggested that colleges hiring faculty should seek to hire people who are willing to work with colleagues in other fields, who bring diverse points of view into the classroom, and who avoid letting their own bias dominate conversations.
These recommendations will not solve many of the trickiest issues, including whether to expand diversity, equity, and inclusion policies or eliminate them; whether to create more spaces for affinity groups or more spaces for intermingling; or how to combat insidious social isolation and exclusion. But they are achievable first steps to help colleges become more welcoming places for all students, regardless of their faith or politics.
Shira Schoenberg can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @shiraschoenberg.
