West Virginia University, a public school in Morgantown, responded to a letter in which the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression expressed “concern” about a school probe of a Jewish student, saying the free speech group’s note was based on “an incomplete understanding of the facts.”
The group, which goes by FIRE, stated that the school may have acted improperly in its response to the Jewish student, Eliyahu Itkowitz, about whom a dining hall staffer complained. The staffer said the student handed out what she said was an anti-Muslim book by Alan Dershowitz and accused the student of calling her “anti-Jewish” and saying “racially inappropriate things to her.”
The Jewish student denied the allegations.
“Because conducting unwarranted investigations with the threat of discipline chills students’ speech, we urge WVU to lift the no-contact order and refrain from investigating protected expression going forward,” FIRE wrote to the school.
Stephanie Taylor, vice president and general counsel at West Virginia, wrote back to FIRE, stating that the letter “conveys an overly simplified account that does not reflect the actual sequence of events or the university’s handling of the matter.”
West Virginia shared a partly redacted copy of Taylor’s letter with JNS. It stated that the dining hall staffer reported the student to university police for giving out the Dershowitz book, but police took no action because no policies had been violated.
The details of another incident that Taylor mentioned in the letter, which occurred a month after the book incident, were redacted. (JNS sought subsequent comment from the university.)
Taylor said the university placed and then lifted temporary no-contact orders on the student and the dining hall staffer. It determined that no disciplinary action was needed, she said.
“It is important to be clear. WVU did not initiate this process in response to the student distributing a pro-Israel book,” Taylor stated. “In fact, the university has confirmed in writing to the student’s adviser that the book distribution did not violate university policy and is protected by the First Amendment.”
She “respectfully” asked FIRE to revise what it wrote about the incident on its website.
Jessie Appleby, program counsel for FIRE, told JNS that the school “ignores key facts in the case while cherry-picking several allegations that are willfully stripped of context.”
“From presenting a distorted timeline to portraying the student, Eliyahu Itkowitz, filming his interactions with dining hall employees to protect against further false allegations as akin to stalking, WVU’s response needlessly maligns Itkowitz’s character,” she told JNS.
“It is incorrect both as to specific facts as well as the broader story,” she said. “FIRE remains concerned about WVU’s investigation of Itkowitz for his protected speech.”