With the new academic year just a few short weeks away on campuses nationwide, many are bracing for a reprise of the ugly protests, encampments and even violent clashes that revealed virulent strains of antisemitism among faculty, staff and students alike.
Many college administrators seemed like deer caught in the headlights, unable or unwilling to acknowledge how serious the problem was at their institutions. Their feeble public responses seemed to make matters even worse.
When Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard University, and Elizabeth Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, testified before Congress last December, there was understandable shock when neither could provide a declarative judgment that their school’s codes of conduct would be violated by calling for the genocide of Jews. Gay and Magill subsequently resigned amid a firestorm of political blowback, adverse publicity and the withdrawal of alumni support and donations.
Other college and university presidents then began to rehearse their own testimonies when called before congressional subcommittees. Still others assumed the controversial role of mediators as they worked to reach settlements with those who had established illegal encampments and refused to vacate when requested.
What seemed to be lost was the primary and arguably most important role that college and university presidents should play: that of educators. In an era when the notion of a “teachable moment” is celebrated as a positive social good, the glaring lack of teachable moments about antisemitism after Oct. 7 is apparent. Few campus administrators have reflected on how best to deal with antisemitism on campus as a critical educational problem. That needs to change.
It’s high time for college and university presidents nationwide to reclaim their responsibilities as educators about antisemitism rather than initiate token efforts such as having antisemitism added to the list of concerns to be addressed by campus DEI offices.
As Stanford University recently noted: “A fundamental obligation of a university is to educate. The painful experiences of this past academic year have revealed a woeful lack of knowledge and understanding of antisemitism. … Stanford should do a better and more systematic job of providing opportunities for students, faculty, staff and community members to become educated about all forms of antisemitism and anti-Israel bias.”
Here’s a practical and impactful step that can be implemented at all institutions of higher education large and small before classes begin again in the coming weeks.
Remember teach-ins? This educational format became popular in the 1960s as campuses brought all students together to learn about threats to the environment on what became known as Earth Day. Other teach-ins soon became popular, including those regarding the Vietnam War.
More recently, teach-ins have blossomed again. At Yale University, for example, a teach-in was held in November 2015 to “educate the community about the issues faced by people of color at Yale.” In October 2020, a campus-wide online teach-in was organized at Yale “to raise awareness for the Rohingya people suffering from violence in Myanmar.”
According to Yale’s Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, “Teach-ins empower students to learn about a specific topic or issue through multidisciplinary lenses and develop/evolve their perspectives by the end of the forum. … Teach-ins allow us to connect and discuss important issues as a campus community.”
Organizing a successful teach-in on antisemitism needs to be approached thoughtfully and supported by necessary resources from various academic units. It will require advanced organizing, a range of speakers and a defined agenda. Community outreach will also be important.
One critical element should not be overlooked: The college or university president should marshal all required support for the antisemitism teach-in and coordinate all activities directly from his/her office. That will send a strong signal about its importance.
The president or the provost serving as the chief academic officer should preside over the teach-in on the day it takes place as a well-informed moderator and visible institutional leader. The teach-in can be livestreamed and archived online so it can be viewed throughout the year, including by alumni and others who cannot attend in person.
An antisemitism teach-in should ideally be held on the same grounds where the prior campus demonstrations or encampments took place. The use of these open campus spaces for a truly educational purpose may strike some as ironic. But in the long run, it can help reassert the role of teaching in higher education that many seem to have forgotten.
This essential mission needs to be reasserted forthrightly since widespread teaching about antisemitism is both timely and necessary.