Report on Antisemitism at CUNY Calls for Changes Across the System

An independent review ordered by Gov. Kathy Hochul has found that the City University of New York needs to “significantly” overhaul and update its policies in order to handle the levels of antisemitism and discrimination that exist on its campuses.

CUNY campuses have been a center of pro-Palestinian activism for years, which Jewish students and elected officials have said sometimes manifests as antisemitism. Since the Hamas attack on Israel last October, there have been dozens of arrests of pro-Palestinian demonstrators on CUNY campuses, including at an encampment at City College in April that was shut down by the city police.

The review, which was commissioned by Ms. Hochul last October after a surge in hate and bias incidents and was released on Tuesday, documented inconsistencies and a lack of oversight in how CUNY’s 25 campuses handled complaints of antisemitism and other bias among students and staff members.

But the review, which included interviews with more than 200 people over 10 months, also found that it was a “small, vocal minority of individuals” responsible for antisemitic incidents, and not a widespread problem.

The report’s author, Jonathan Lippman, a former chief judge of New York, offered more than a dozen recommendations to improve the campus climate, including the creation of a new CUNY center devoted to efforts to combat hate.

CUNY said that it had already begun to put some of the recommendations into effect, including approving the anti-hate center, which will be called the Center for Inclusive Excellence and Belonging. Ms. Hochul said on Tuesday that she was directing CUNY to enact all of them.