Date: Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 2:37 PM
Subject: Northwestern administration silence in the face of antisemitism
To: Northwestern President <nupresident@northwestern.edu>, President Schill <administration@northwestern.edu>, Mona Elizabeth Dugo <Mona.dugo@northwestern.edu>, <community-standards@northwestern.edu>, Kathleen Hagerty <k-hagerty@northwestern.edu>, Susan M Davis <sdavis@northwestern.edu>

Dear President Schill, Provost Hagerty, Dean Dugo, Vice President Davis, and many others,

I write to you to express my shock and disappointment that Northwestern has not yet released a statement regarding the brutal and antisemitic attacks on two Jewish students yesterday at DePaul University (CNN) (abc7) (CBS) (USAToday) (JerusalemPost) (NBCChicago) (ChicagoTribune). This comes after many violent incidents including the shooting of a Jewish man in West Rogers Park two weekends ago (abc7) (nbcChicago) (CBS) (USAToday) (CNN) (ChicagoTribune) which the university also did not comment on. Additionally the university was completely silent in communication to the community when there were reports of Jewish students being attacked on Northwestern campus, despite being aware of these alleged incidents (Testimony To Congress).

I am shocked since the university wasted no time releasing a statement immediately the day after an Arab Stanford student was attacked one year ago this past November in an alleged hate crime (Promoting Peace And Civility). The university released the statement over the weekend, which shows how important it was to the administration to make a statement. This was also after the university had declared its intent to avoid making statements on the conflict in the middle east and related issues (Message from President Schill to Senior Leadership) (Our Northwestern Values). President Schill stated: "Regardless of what the University has done in the past, I do not foresee that I will be issuing statements on political, geopolitical or social issues that do not directly impact the core mission of our University, the education and futures of our students, or higher education." Seemingly, the Stanford incident must have directly impacted the core mission of the university, otherwise the leadership would not have spoken on it. I ask you: Was this incident at Stanford more impactful to our community than the incident at DePaul University (Despite Depaul being in the same city and Stanford being across the country)?

Additionally, back in 2020, the university released multiple statements regarding the murder of George Floyd (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) in which the university tooks sides and made statements on behalf of its entire community.

Northwestern University has clearly set a precedent of making statements regarding different issues of hate, as evidenced by the above examples. If the university will act in this manner for Blacks and Arabs among others, I expect the Jewish community to be treated with the same care and compassion. I caution you that anything else is illegal discrimination and is a violation of Title VI. 

**I call on the university to immediately release a statement condemning the horrific attacks at DePaul University in the same way the university condemned other hate based crimes such as the Stanford incident and the murder of George Floyd.**

By constantly failing to protect Jewish students, Northwestern has made the campus unsafe. I used to enjoy the campus, but nowadays I avoid walking and hanging around on campus, I avoid going to events, I avoid many other things Northwestern offers such as CAPS, health services, dining halls, museums, the gym, and the lake fill. I do not feel safe on campus, and I do not have any confidence whatsoever that the university would protect me If I was the victim of antisemitism. I only go to the building where I work, and when I leave I go straight to my car. Do you think this is fair? Does this concern you?

Please release a statement by the end of the week, and please do not ignore me as you continuously have.

Sincerely,

Concerned Northwestern Student