By Dan Murphy
Two SUNY Purchase students and the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department, filed a Title VI complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on August 20. The complaint alleges that SUNY Purchase has failed 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 a Purchase Student Government Association (“PSGA”) leadership-driven effort to ostracize, excommunicate, and retaliate against Hillel, the sole campus group dedicated to Jewish life and Jewish culture at SUNY Purchase, apparently because of Hillel’s Zionist-Jewish identity. Instead of remedying this retaliatory targeting of SUNY Purchase’s Jewish student group and its members, the administration ignored it and then actively encouraged student government leadership to continue its discriminatory harassment of the Jewish community.
Specifically, the complaint alleges that “the SUNY Purchase administration was derelict in its obligation to protect Jewish, Zionist, and Israeli students from known discrimination by the PSGA,” and “by capitulating to the demands of anti-Zionist aggressors on campus, the Purchase administration itself was responsible for directly contributing to the blatantly hostile antisemitic environment.”
The complaint outlines the rhetoric and actions of PSGA leaders, including the following:
Posting a video on the official PSGA Instagram account in which a PSGA leader is seen holding a watermelon-shaped eraser, a symbol that has been used to show support for Hamas in the aftermath of October 7, while expressing solidarity with anti-Israel students.
Desecrating and damaging private property (including sacred religious items) belonging to Hillel by removing them from a locker and throwing them on the floor in a larger attempt to kick Hillel out of space it has used for over a decade—in violation of the Student Code of Conduct’s provisions regarding respect for property.
Publicly slandering Hillel with antisemitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories, including calling Hillel an “illegitimate club,” “occupiers,” and “privileged.”
Embarking on a campaign to remove Hillel from campus by selectively applying rules only to Hillel and, when that failed, arbitrarily creating a new “rule” and, again, applying it only to Hillel.
The complaint explains that University administrators were aware of the PSGA’s pointed retribution toward Hillel and the Jewish community but chose not to intervene, despite having the authority and obligation to do so under applicable policies and laws.
“Intentionally turning a blind eye from – and at times appearing to openly encourage – the student government’s antisemitic targeting of the SUNY Purchase Jewish community is a clear violation of Title VI, and the administration’s capitulation to pro-Hamas encampment members only served to exacerbate the problem,” said Yael Lerman, Director of the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department. “To our knowledge, no SUNY Purchase student government leader has been disciplined for the conduct alleged in the complaint, which includes violating numerous school policies. We hope OCR will intervene to remedy this deeply troubling violation of the rights of Jewish, Israeli and Zionist students and to prevent these students from being subjected to such hostile treatment in the school year ahead.”
StandWithUs is an international, non-partisan education organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism. StandWithUs informs through social media, print and digital materials, films, weekly newsletters, and missions to Israel. StandWithUs takes legal action through the StandWithUs Legal Department. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Los Angeles. More at www.standwithus.com.
A current student and a recent graduate joined in the complaint.
Also not identified is the Student Government Association leader who allegedly engaged in the antisemitic activity. We hope to identify that individual and interview them.
StandWithUs is registered as a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit.
In a statement provided to JNS, Jewish News Service, Milagros Peña, president of Purchase College, said, “We reject antisemitism. We stand firmly against any discrimination or marginalization of any group of students or individual students in clubs or other organizations,” Peña stated. “We are committed to being welcoming and inclusive to students, faculty and staff of all religions, ethnicities, backgrounds, races, identities and viewpoints.”
“As the semester is starting, the campus is continuing mandatory training in Title VI, which started this spring, and will be working to ensure all campus community members are aware of how to report any incidents of bias that they witness or experience, so that it can be thoroughly investigated and addressed,” Peña added.
In May of this year (2024) and group of Palestinian protestors set up an encampment on SUNY Purchase. The protestors included many Purchase students and faculty members, but also groups including WESPAC.
After the protestors were asked to leave by police, the SUNY Purchase administration decided to permit police to remove the demonstrators and arrested 70.
“Students were allowed to protest peacefully, which they did for several hours, as long as they followed SUNY’s rules for the maintenance of order and the student code of conduct,” said SUNY Purchase spokesperson Betsy Aldredge.
“Quiet hours are especially important during the lead up to the end of the semester when students need time to sleep, study, and complete final projects and go to dorm rooms without fear or concern for personal safety. We received numerous complaints that this did not happen last night due to the fire alarms being repeatedly pulled by students in protest, “said President Pena.
