Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, said after the initial report was issued, there was an assumption that things on campus would calm down, especially as the end of the school year was fast approaching.
That turned out not to be the case as, according to Greenblatt, there was an “alarming surge of anti-Jewish hate connected to the encampments and other on-campus protests, putting students’ safety at risk and even prompting some schools to cancel graduation.”
“The end of the school year should be a joyous time for students and their families,” he said in a press release. “It is unacceptable that some university leaders have let this situation get this out of hand.”
Among the schools that saw their ratings improve were Swarthmore College which went from an “F” to a “D” because of “new information on their public condemnation of antisemitic incidents and their internal promotion of Jewish holidays” and Wellesley College which moved from a “D” to a “C” because of “new information” about pro-Israel programming.
The report also singled out several other schools, such as the University of Texas, Austin, and the University of Florida, for making significant improvements in handling of antisemitism on their campuses. However, because of the way the methodology used in the ratings they did not move up a grade.
The report card has proven beneficial especially as high school seniors declared where they would be going to college in the fall. As an ADL spokesperson said, “We always intended this to be one of the many tools schools and parents could use. Anecdotally, we did hear from parents and students that the tool was useful and an important resource as they were making decisions.”
