- Newly formed Restore Our Campuses Coalition (ROCC) representing broad cross-section of American schools spotlights inaction by university leadership
- Calls for removal of federal funding of schools in violation of Title VI
- Seeks termination of faculty and expulsion of students who are in breach of university codes of conduct
- Requests Congress work with the Administration to deport non-U.S. students who engage in antisemitic activity
WASHINGTON, May 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Restore Our Campuses Coalition (ROCC), a newly formed grassroots organization of students from colleges and universities across the United States, has sent a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, requesting Congressional intervention to stop the “tsunami” of antisemitism sweeping American campuses. Students from more than 50 universities signed the letter, citing inaction by university leadership in the face of escalating incitement to violence, threats, and harassment of Jewish students. ROCC’s mission is to restore college campuses to being safe environments for learning, intellectual inquiry, and freedom of expression, where all students are included and welcomed.
The letter expresses gratitude to the Speaker, Minority Leader and House Education and Workforce Committee for their leadership on these issues, while noting the recent unprecedented escalation of antisemitism on campuses. The letter calls out that the chaos on many campuses has been orchestrated by groups of students, faculty and outside instigators who are declaring their support for proscribed terror organizations, calling for the destruction of Israel, and creating “Zionist free zones” in public spaces on university campuses.
“As students and as Americans, we embrace and revere the right to free speech and expression—even when the speech is uncomfortable. However what is happening on campus is not an exercise in freedom of speech. It is a regressive, coordinated campaign that includes targeting of Jewish students because of our beliefs and identity, with a clear goal of sewing mayhem, disrupting the functioning of our universities, and depriving students of the ability to safely learn and study,” said Eden Yadegar, an undergraduate student at Columbia University.
“This is a moment that demands leadership by those who are responsible for our campuses. Instead, unbelievably many of our university leaders have taken no meaningful action to reassert control over our campuses. What they have done is demonstrate continued fecklessness, with a lack of resolve and have taken few concrete steps to enforce rules by which all members of our universities are required to abide,” said Sabrina Soffer, an undergraduate student at George Washington University.
The letter requests a series of specific measures by Congress, including:
- Enforce Title VI violations and withhold federal funding for identified violations.
- Call for the termination of faculty and expulsion of students who are in breach of university codes of conduct—including for social media posts that specifically support violence against Jews (including Israelis). Freedom of speech does not include freedom to incite, threaten or create a discriminatory environment for Jewish students on campus. This is particularly egregious when it comes from the very people who are supposed to be educating and teaching students. Instead many are engaged in polemics and propaganda.
- Work with the Administration to initiate and enforce deportation of non-U.S. students who engage in antisemitic activity.
“The antisemitism that is infecting our campuses is a crisis that knows no political boundary. It does not distinguish between Republicans, Democrats, or Independents. Political affiliation provides no immunity to this hateful virus which is antithetical to our core American values,” said Eyal Yakoby, an undergraduate student at University of Pennsylvania.
About Restore Our Campuses Coalition
ROCC is a newly formed grassroots group whose mission is to restore our campuses to being safe environments for learning, intellectual inquiry, and freedom of expression, where all students are included and welcomed. We are American college students who are the children and grandchildren of immigrants who fled persecution in other countries and came to the United States to be free of the scourge of antisemitism that has targeted Jews for millenia. We have come together to speak with one voice, as one community and to declare that we will not be bullied and victimized by hate. For more information, please visit www.restoreourcampuses.org
SOURCE Restore Our Campuses Coalition
