Two California colleges face civil rights complaints over alleged antisemitic bullying

Two Southern California colleges have become the latest institutions to face allegations for “caving to the anti-Semitic mob and letting them bully, harass, and intimidate Jewish students,” amid student calls for divestment from Israel.

The allegations against Pomona College in Claremont and Occidental, in Eagle Rock, on Thursday, May 9, came as campus unrest continued to simmer at colleges across Southern California and the nation. Officials readied for planned graduations amid continued outcry over the official response to large protests calling for colleges to divest from Israel.

Those calls were amplified at UCLA Thursday, as more than 800 University of California faculty and staff called for the resignation of UCLA Chancellor Gene Block over the handling of a pro-Palestinian encampment and related violence that erupted on the Westwood campus.

But the outcry further ramped up in Claremont, where at Pomona College, administrators were vowing to have a graduation even as student protesters were physically dismantling parts of the graduation stage.

Allegations against Occidental, Pomona

In their complaints, filed with the the U.S. Department of Education’s Office, the groups accused the colleges of “permitting severe discrimination and harassment of Jewish students in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

According to the organizations, antisemitic incidents at both colleges have escalated significantly since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Jewish and Israeli students have reportedly experienced harassment, name-calling, threats, and even physical assaults.

Amid pro-Palestinian protests decrying Isreal’s military actions in Gaza since Oct. 7, long simmering tensions over anti-semitism have grown louder across the country. All the while, administrators have had to grapple with  where to draw the line between free speech and hate speech. And across Southern California and the nation, they face charges that they’ve let the protests devolve into security threats against Jewish students.

“Jewish students on these campuses are hiding in their dorms and avoiding their own campus rather than risk verbal and physical attacks,” Kenneth L. Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center, said in a statement.

Marcus, who previously served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights, also criticized the school leaders for ignoring or taking little action to address students safety.

“Pomona and Occidental know full well this is happening. But instead of enforcing the law and their own policies, they are caving to the anti-Semitic mob and letting them bully, harass, and intimidate Jewish students,” he said. “Anti-Semitism left unaddressed will not go away. It will only snowball and escalate until the problem is faced head on as the law requires.”

In response to the complaints, Occidental College said that it “condemns antisemitism in any form” and will cooperate with any investigation.

“Occidental received today a redacted version of the complaint made by ADL and the Brandeis Center,” Rachael Warecki, a spokesperson for the college, said in a statement. “The college does not tolerate discrimination and condemns antisemitism in any form, and it will of course cooperate with the Office for Civil Rights in any subsequent investigation.”

The school’s Board of Trustees this week agreed to enter negotiation with the protesters and vote on divesting from Israel, according to reports.

At Pomona College — where on Thursday new signs and barricades have appeared around the pro-Palestinian encampment occupying the college’s commencement stage, just days before the ceremony — administrators echoed Occidental.

“Pomona College is committed to confronting antisemitism in a sustained and comprehensive manner,” officials said in a statement. “We will continue to enforce our policies, promote safety and actively challenge this destructive form of hate.”

In the complaint against Occidental College, the group listed several incidents to back their claim of the school’s “disparate treatment” against Jewish students, including the occupation of the school’s central administrative building by the Occidental Students for Justice in Palestine.

Similarly, the group criticized Pomona for allowing incidents of harassment, such as permitting a shrine created by students honoring “the Hamas terrorists” to remain in place for four calendar days before removing it. While Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr’s took “laudable” actions to address the anti-semiticism behaviors, these efforts were “belated” as the opposition on campus had already grown too strong, the group said.

The latest action followed a similar complaint taken by the Jewish organizations in February against Berkeley K-12 public schools for “severe and persistent” antisemitism bullying. The group also lodged a similar complaint against UMass Amherst earlier this month.

The complaints against the two colleges came a day after President Joe Biden, in a ceremony to remember victims of the Holocaust, said that on Oct. 7, Hamas “brought to life” that hatred with the killing of more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and warned that, already, people are beginning to forget who was responsible. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

While acknowledging the ceremony was taking place during “difficult times,” Biden made no explicit reference to the deaths of more than 34,700 Palestinians since the attack by Hamas led Israel to declare war in Gaza. The tally from the Hamas-run health ministry includes fighters, but also many civilians caught up in the fighting.

UCLA, USC leaders face faculty ire

At UCLA, the calls for Chancellor Gene Block’s job mounted on Thursday, more than a week after on-campus clashes between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protesters, the latter of which had set up a large encampment in the campus’s Royce Quad.

That encampment was dismantled a day later in a massive police sweep that ended with more than 200 arrests. But amid the tension, criticism emerged on both sides over the school’s response leading up to the clashes and the clearing of the encampment, and over the ensuing arrests.

The faculty members attached their names to an online petition that calls for the ouster of Block, as well as full amnesty for all students, staff and faculty who were involved in the encampment. The petition also calls on the university to fully disclose within 30 days all of its investments, and to divest from “all military weapons production companies and supporting systems.”

According to the university’s website, UCLA alone has more than 8,200 faculty members and an overall staff of more than 31,000 people.

Faculty and staff members gathered on the UCLA campus Thursday to express their concerns and deliver the petition to Block and university administration. After a short news conference, the group marched to the campus’ Murphy Hall, chanting, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”

Campus security met the group at the doors of Murphy Hall, preventing them from entering and reaching the chancellor’s office.

There was no immediate response from Block, who is already scheduled to retire at the end of July. But in recent days he has announced investigations into the matter while messaging what was his administration’s approach to the giant protests on campus: “the goal of maximizing our community members’ ability to make their voices heard on an urgent global issue,” unless it jeopardized student safety, he said in a message to the campus.

The online petition notes that organizers are monitoring a possible strike by the Graduate Student Academic Workers’ union, and if such a strike vote occurs, “those of us who are senate faculty will not perform any struck labor in spring 2024,” and they are also considering “the possibility to withhold our own labor” until the demands are met.

On Monday, about 40 more people were arrested at a UCLA parking garage, forcing the school to shift back into virtual classrooms.

Police on Thursday said the group was carrying items such as bolt-cutters, super glue, padlocks, heavy-duty chains and metal pipes, along with printed materials “encouraging vandalism and violence.”

A similar critique of administration emerged at USC on Thursday, where USC’s Academic Senate, which represents the university’s faculty, formally censured USC President Carol Folt and Provost Andrew Guzman over their handling of dramatic changes in commencement activities and other responses to campus protests sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.

According to the Daily Trojan campus newspaper, the senate voted 21-7 in favor of the censure, with six members abstaining. The censure cited “widespread dissatisfaction and concern” regarding decisions made by Folt and Guzman surrounding commencement activities and the pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

Those decisions, including the cancellation of USC’s main-stage traditional graduation, were playing out in a big way on Thursday.  In lieu of the traditional on-campus commencement, USC pulled together a university-wide “Trojan Family Graduation Celebration,” next door at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Thursday evening.

In Claremont, graduation stage in jeopardy

But USC was just the front end of graduations that will be spotting Southern California over the next several weeks. Even on Friday, UCLA Law School has its graduation, which earlier this month was moved to Pauley Pavilion. But it will be the same day – and hours — as the school’s Academic Senate, which represents campus faculty, will hold an emergency meeting to consider a resolution of “no-confidence” and a formal censure of Block.

Protesters began dismantling parts of Pomona College’s commencement stage late Thursday afternoon, extending the barrier of a pro-Palestinian encampment just days before graduation.

Large banners that read “The people’s campus for Palestine” and the Palestinian flag hung from the supports of the commencement stage, where protesters have been camped out since early Monday. Activities honoring the Class of 2024 are set to begin Friday and conclude Sunday.

Signs shaped like shields with phrases such as “4 the kids in Gaza” and “let Gaza live” appeared to have handles fastened to them and lined the encampment barricade extending from the commencement stage to the front of Bridges Auditorium late Thursday afternoon.

The group organizing the student protest against Israel’s offensive in Gaza, Pomona Divestment from Apartheid, added on to the barricades around the encampment, using chicken wire and wooden pallets as a makeshift inner wall.

Anwar Mohamed, a Pomona College junior and representative for PDfA, said the group is prepared to stay as long as it takes for the college to cut financial ties with Israel or companies that support its operations in Gaza.

“Students are here for however long is necessary and will call for divestment at every possible opportunity,” Mohamed said. “Whatever the school may throw at us we will still be shouting ‘divestment now, full disclosure and condemn the apartheid regime.’ ”

Thursday afternoon, Pomona College officials issued a statement about commencement but did not elaborate on the encampment or the student group’s demands.

“We are committed to holding commencement to honor the Class of 2024, with their loved ones, and preparations are continuing,” the statement reads.

City News service and the Associated Press contributed to this article.