Statement from the University Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias

This message is to update the Stanford community on the work of the Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias.

The Subcommittee began meeting in November of last year after being appointed by Stanford President Richard Saller.  It was then reconstituted in December when President Saller asked the two of us to serve as co-chairs.  We have since expanded the membership of the Subcommittee, which is listed with bios on our webpage.

The name of our Subcommittee was amended and the membership was expanded to make more explicit our intention to assess all manifestations of antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias at Stanford.  Discrimination against or intimidation of any person on the basis of their nationality is a violation of Stanford’s rules of employment (and also a violation of California law).  It also contradicts the first principle of the Fundamental Standard, which declares: “Students are expected to respect and uphold the rights and dignity of others regardless of personal characteristics or viewpoints.” The change in the name of the Subcommittee also reflects the significant number of reports we have already received of anti-Israeli bias on campus. Bias against any nationality group is unacceptable in a university community and a legitimate and necessary matter for investigation.

The Subcommittee defines its core goal as follows: “to help the University create an environment where all members of the community, including Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and staff, are physically and emotionally safe on the Stanford campus, are treated with dignity and respect, and do not experience a hostile environment.” To achieve this long-term goal, there is much work to be done to foster civil and critical discourse on this campus.  That is both a norm and a skill that seems to have atrophied over time throughout our society, and especially in the age of social media. We also think it is important that the university educate its community about the harms of any discrimination based on religion, shared ancestry, ethnicity, and nationality, and particularly (given the charge to our committee) to educate the community about antisemitism.

None of this can succeed unless we hear from diverse portions of the community who want to share their experiences and ideas regarding antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias. To this end we will conduct an intensive set of listening sessions, beginning at the end of January and continuing over the remainder of this quarter, in small groups no larger than seminar-size.  Different campus constituencies will receive emails inviting them to sign up to participate, and separate listening sessions will be arranged for undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents. Many of these sessions will be further specific to membership of individual schools. We invite members of these diverse groups to sign up to participate in a listening session when they receive their invitation. For those who do not feel comfortable joining such a discussion with participants not familiar to them, we will create different options for engagement. All listening sessions will be conducted under a Chatham House-style rule that will protect the identity of all participants, and no written record of the meeting will identify participants by name.

The subcommittee will continue to actively monitor reports of antisemitic and anti-Israeli activities, and it will bring them to the attention of University leadership to ensure that they are being addressed according to stated university policies. We invite all members of the community to share with us, orally or in writing (contact us at abccommittee@stanford.edu), whatever experience or knowledge they may have of antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias at Stanford.  We emphasize here, as we are doing in all direct interactions with students and other members of our community, that reports to our subcommittee do not constitute an official report to the University. We encourage any student who experiences an incident of antisemitism or anti-Israeli bias at Stanford that occurs outside the classroom or academic environment to report the incident through the University’s Protected Identity Harm Reporting webpage. If a student experiences an incident of antisemitism or anti-Israeli bias in the classroom or academic environment it should be reported to the dean’s office of the relevant school. Faculty experiencing such incidents should report them to their school dean’s office, and staff should report such incidents to Human Resources. Incidents which occur in residence and dining halls should be reported to staff affiliated with Residential Education (especially RFs and RDs); incidents rooted in student activity spaces to the Office of Student Engagement. 

To understand how Stanford’s experience compares with that of other universities, and to learn more about what policies, procedures, and initiatives hold the best prospect of countering antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias at Stanford and creating a campus climate of mutual respect and dignity for all identities, we will also cast a wider net of conversations. We will be talking with national organizations focused on these issues, and with committees and initiatives at other universities that are working to assess and address this challenge.

As our work proceeds, we will be in dialogue with the Committee on Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian Communities, appointed by President Saller at the same time as our Subcommittee. Our concern to counter bias on campus does not begin and end with antisemitism.  We want all members of the Stanford community to be treated equally, with dignity and respect for their identities and their rights. 

We will provide periodic updates about our progress on our website, and our aim is to deliver a report to the University well before the close of the academic year. This report will distill and assess what we have learned through our listening sessions and other efforts to gather evidence. That report will also offer recommendations of policies and programs to counter antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias and to create a campus community where all groups will be treated with dignity and respect.

Larry Diamond and Jeff Koseff
Co-Chairs of the Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias