Student sues Qatari-funded Carnegie Mellon for antisemitic abuse

Carnegie Mellon has received $600 million in funding from Qatar.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

A Jewish architecture student at Carnegie Mellon filed a suit on Wednesday claiming that faculty and administration at the prestigious Pittsburg institution engaged in a “cruel campaign of antisemitism.”

Also noted in the lawsuit is that Carnegie Mellon has received $600 million in funding from Qatar, a country known for its antisemitism, and the university also has a satellite campus in Doha, Qatar.

Yael Canaan, who is Jewish and partly Israeli, attended CMU’s School of Architecture from 2018 to 2023 and says professors engaged in a “systematic campaign of hostility.”

The lawsuit described the mental and physical symptoms that resulted from this mistreatment, including “debilitating and nausea-inducing migraines, depression, isolationism, and anxiety, and treatment, including medications.”

The problems began when Mary-Lou Arscott, associate head for design fundamentals, criticized a project Canaan designed incorporating an eruv, which is used to connect public and private space the facilitate Jewish Shabbat observance.

Arscott interrupted Canaan during a presentation of her project, and said that the wall in the model “looked like the wall Israelis use to barricade Palestinians out of Israel.”

Although shocked, Canaan completed the presentation but was told by Arscott afterward that her time would have been better spent finding out ‘what Jews do to make themselves such a hated group.”

Although Canaan complained to Erica Cochran Hameen, the School of Architecture director of DEI about Arscott’s comments, Hameen did nothing, although she pretended to be appalled at the time.

When the administration scheduled a Zoom meeting between Arscott and Canaan, Arscott refused to apologize, said flatly, “I’m sorry you feel that way,” and following the meeting, sent her a link to an antisemitic and anti-Israel blog called Funambulist to give her an “insightful perspective.

Canaan approached the Title IX office which deals with discrimination cases, but, according to the lawsuit the office “aggressively discouraged Canaan from filing a formal complaint, which would have triggered an investigation of Arscott, the DEI Office’s failure to address the misconduct, and the systemic culture of antisemitism at CMU.”

Finally, Canaan reached out to another faculty member, Theodossis Issaias about Ascott’s behavior but he refused to take her seriously, and even scheduled a class party at Ascott’s house because “Breaking bread is a process of reconciliation.”

Issaias told Canaan that she was “acting like a victim” and he declared he “cannot be an advocate for the Jews.”

After that incident, Issaias refused to give Canaan one-on-one feedback on her project which was essential for her completing her coursework.

Canaan’s lawyers are suing the university for punitive and monetary damages.

campus antisemitismCarnegie Mellon UniversityQatar