Gov. Kathy Hochul submitted a letter to the State University of New York’s (SUNY’s) colleges and universities’ presidents on December 9, in which she underscored that “calling for the genocide of any group of people” on their campuses “would constitute a violation of [the State’s] Human Rights Law as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” This letter was written in response to the pernicious spread of anti-Semitism throughout college campuses in the wake of the deadly multipronged Hamas terror assault in Israel on October 7.
Hochul’s letter was sent just days after a Congressional hearing on anti-Semitism in which presidents from three elite schools – University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – collectively failed to “clearly and unequivocally denounce anti-Semitism and calls for genocide on college campuses.” Under Title VI, Hochul wrote that “any recipient of federal funds is responsible for keeping students free from a hostile environment based upon their ethnicity or national origin – a standard that has been applied to anti-Semitism.”
It was announced this past weekend that UPenn’s President Liz Magill would resign after failing to state that calling for “the genocide of Jews” constituted as “harassment” on campus. Magill’s participation alongside her MIT and Harvard counterparts at the hearing in Washington, generated severe backlash by observers and lawmakers who were angry by vague responses that did not go far enough in condemning hate that has been hurled against Jewish students on their campuses. President Magill testified alongside Harvard’s Claudine Gay and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth.
“Like many Americans, I was shocked to see the presidents of several prominent universities – current leaders that are responsible for educating young minds that will grow into the leaders of tomorrow – fail to clearly and unequivocally denounce anti-Semitism and calls for genocide of the Jewish people on their college campuses,” read Gov. Hochul’s letter. The governor reminded New Yorkers that she will keep in close contact with the State University of New York’s Chancellor John King to “ensure that the policy calling for the genocide of any group of people on [any of the 64 of] SUNY’s campuses would be considered a violation of [its] code of conduct and would lead to swift disciplinary action.” Gov. Hochul has routinely appeared alongside Jewish faith leaders, reinforcing that colleges and universities may lose their funding if they do not enforce their codes of conduct around hate.
Less than two weeks after the Hamas terror assault, Hochul also took part in a solidarity trip to Israel. “The attacks halfway across the world feel deeply personal to New Yorkers, which is why, as the leader of the state, I feel compelled to go to Israel,” she said. “I saw pain, hurt, and mourning, but I also saw the incredible strength of the Jewish people,” she wrote on Twitter/X.
While UPenn’s President Magill opted to resign over the weekend, Harvard’s governing board unequivocally supported its own President. A four-paragraph letter written by the Harvard Corporation, the school’s top governing board, read in part, “[Our President] is committed to redoubling the University’s fight against anti-Semitism. In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay. At Harvard, we champion open discourse and academic freedom, and we are united in our strong belief that calls for violence against our students and disruptions in the classroom experience will not be tolerated.” Despite multiple calls for her to step down, over 500 Harvard faculty members signed a letter defending Gay, arguing that the university’s “independence” needed to be protected.
Alan Dershowitz, a long-time Harvard alumnus and law professor, disagrees, and has made it abundantly clear he wants Gay to be ousted. He says that Gay rose the ranks to the school’s top post because she had long been a proponent of the school’s “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)” initiative. It is fraudulent, says Dershowitz, as the concept does not apply to protecting Jews. “She is a product of DEI. She championed it. That’s how she became president. She is the symbol of DEI and the symbol has failed and she must also recognize her own failure and her role in that failure,” he explained in an appearance on Fox News on December 11.
By Jared Feldschreiber
