By: Jennifer Ward and Arlenis Marmolejos
The Purchase College Library (Photo by Arlenis Marmolejos)
StandWithUs, a pro-Israel international organization, filed a Title VI civil rights complaint against Purchase College.
This follows a semester marked by student-led pro-Palestine protests and encampments, one of which led to the arrest of over 70 students.
In a press release, StandWithUs published on August 20, they state the complaint was filed due to Purchase failing “to remedy a pervasively hostile campus climate for Jewish, Zionist, and Israeli students through its inaction, refusal to enforce its own policies, dismissiveness toward Jewish students’ concerns, and at times unequal treatment of its Jewish, Zionist, and Israeli students as compared with other groups on campus.”
The complaint details many incidents involving Hillel, a Jewish organization on campus, and the Purchase Student Government (PSGA) during the 2023-2024 academic year.
The PSGA is unable to comment at this time due to the active complaint.
Purchase President Milagros Peña stated that Purchase is committed to providing a safe and hate-free environment with zero tolerance for bias, hatred or discrimination.
“We reject antisemitism and we are currently investigating the claims listed in the Title VI case,” Peña wrote in a statement to The Phoenix. “We stand firmly against any discrimination or marginalization of any group of students or individual students in clubs or other organizations.”
Peña also stated that the campus will be continuing with Title VI training, aiming to make students aware of how to report “incidents of bias.”
The Ombudsman, Paul Nicholson, wrote in a statement to The Phoenix that “the actions taken by PSGA leadership voted prompted in the complaint are egregious.” He expressed hope that the complaint would lead to some meaningful change on campus.
In December of 2023, Nicholson’s support for Israel led to an encounter with a student, prompting an alleged hate crime investigation.
Nicholson noted, "Just in the first week of classes this semester, we’ve sadly seen pro-terror activists vandalizing our campus," following the University Police Department's (UPD) investigation into alleged “antisemitic statements” written in Alumni Village.
A banner displaying the PSGA's mission statement and organization description located in the PSGA office inside the Campus Center North (CCN) building.
(Photo by Arlenis Marmolejos)
The main incidents listed in the complaint included a video on the PSGA account including a watermelon-shaped eraser, alleged desecration and damage of religious property, alleged public slander, and an alleged attempt to remove Hillel from campus.
The complaint was filed by former Hillel President and recent Purchase graduate Esti Heller, along with a current student after the events of the past academic year.
“Everyone has the right to protest for what they believe in, but they do not have the right to call for the death to Jews/Israelis, which is what calling for a third intifada and supporting Hamas means,” Heller wrote in a statement to The Phoenix.
Heller states Peña’s promise to ensure safety for Jewish students a “lip service” and claims her senior year was filled with antisemitism, leading her to pursue legal action to ensure future and current students wouldn’t face the same.
Heller said, “Proper resolution requires all parties to be working in good faith towards that goal, which was not the case.”
Executive Director of Hillels of Westchester Rachel Klein wrote in a statement to The Phoenix, "Every student has a federal right to equal opportunity for education in environments free from harassment, intimidation and bias.”
Klein continued, “When that right is abridged, the college has an obligation to remedy the issues. The sincere hope is to move to a place where civil dialogue and pursuit of knowledge are paramount."
In a statement to The Phoenix, the political group Raise the Consciousness (RTC) wrote the complaint is "baseless" and "harmful towards legitimate victims of antisemitism on campus."
"We have said this again and we will say it again: Anti-Zionism is not Anti-Semitism," RTC wrote. "Zionism has no place on our campus, as it is a fascist and colonialist ideology that is entirely opposed to RTC values and the values of the student body at large. Advocating for a free Palestine is not anti-semitic."
RTC also claimed that Purchase College protects "zionists" on campus and that this complaint ignores the arrests on May 2, and does nothing but silence pro-Palestine student protestors.
Andrew Salomon, faculty presiding officer, wrote in a statement to The Phoenix that the complaint is being taken “very seriously”.
“I find it sobering and, in many places, disturbing,” Salomon said. “We are not simply in a place of disagreement; we are in a state of disrepair.”
He continued, “All of us need to take seriously the actions of hatred and division – from anti-Semitism to the feckless use of force. We must deal with their aftereffects in a conscious, respectful, and empathetic way.”
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