CUNY head fails to answer basic questions in antisemitism probe

Anti-Israel demonstrators “publicly labeled me a genocide enabler simply because I called out the antisemitism of their protest,” said one student.

By World Israel News Staff

The Chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY) was slammed by local politicians at a City Council meeting on Monday, after he failed to adequately prepare for the hearing or provide details regarding the administration’s plan to make campus safe for Jewish and Israeli students.

Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez was unable to answer basic questions during the meeting, such as the number of complaints filed by Jewish students or staff regarding antisemitic incidents at the school, or whether any faculty members who had participated in the harassment of Jewish and Israeli students had been disciplined.

Rodriguez’s apparent lack of interest in the investigation into on-campus antisemitism angered the Council members who questioned him.

“We want a CUNY that is safe and welcoming for all students. Those conversations become very challenging when that data doesn’t exist, or it exists, but it’s not being shared, or you didn’t come prepared with it,” said Councilmember Eric Dinowitz (D-Bronx), chair of the Committee on Higher Education.

“It’s just wholly unsatisfactory. It’s not enough just to show up,” another member of the Higher Education committee, Councilmember Julie Menin (D-Manhattan), said.

Students, who testified anonymously at the hearing, recounted widespread harassment due to their Jewish or Israeli identities following the October 7th terror onslaught by Hamas.

Anti-Israel demonstrators “publicly labeled me a genocide enabler simply because I called out the antisemitism of their protest,” said one student.

“All I ask is that Jewish students are treated with the same respect and dignity that any other student would be granted.”

Another student, who was told to stop wearing a Star of David necklace on campus, said that his experience on campus following the Hamas attack was “something of a nightmare.”

Intense anti-Israel protests, which included demonstrators harassing and doxxing Jewish students, as well as physically intimidating them, became the norm.

“I came to understand that my safety at school could not be guaranteed,” the student sad.