University of Michigan Jewish-student group speaks out on Education Department's warning letter
After the University of Michigan received a letter on Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Education warning them of potential consequences surrounding what it calls antisemitic discrimination and harassment, one of the largest Jewish-led organizations at the university says the school is already making efforts to change.
"I think that what we've seen from the University of Michigan is a commitment to understand the problem of antisemitism on this campus and a determination to improve the situation," said Rabbi Davey Rosen, chief executive officer of the University of Michigan Hillel.
Michigan Hillel, a group dedicated to empowering Jewish students, says the school acknowledged the concerns they presented to leaders at the beginning of the school year, including what they called threatening messaging posted around campus.
"It made it incredibly difficult at times for some students, for many students, frankly, to even bring their full Jewish selves to campus, and that's not okay. That's never okay; that's not how it should be," said Rosen.
Rosen says these actions began before the letter arrived, and he expects the work to continue. The university's new 10-month partnership is part of the organization's campus climate initiative to address the issue.
"There's a real commitment to make this a safe and thriving space for Jewish students and really truly for all students," said Rosen.
The university sent CBS News Detroit a statement in response to the letter, saying it "remains committed to providing a safe and non-discriminatory environment for all members of the university community."
School Regent Sarah Hubbard says that includes creating new rules and policies that allow everyone to exercise their right to free speech safely.
"We want to encourage everyone to talk about what they need to talk about on our campus, but make sure that we're supporting our own rules and regulations," said Hubbard.
Hubbard says her fellow regents are now focused on finding a compromise to avoid future disruptions to students and their studies.
"It's a place with a long history of engagement by our students, a long history of protests and activism. We're not trying to stop that, we're just trying to make sure that it happens in a way that's safe for everybody," said Hubbard.
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