Anti-Semitic incidents on university campuses last fall in Florida and New England have led the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith to seek the underlying causes for prejudice among collegians.
Seymour D. Reich, chairman of ADL’s fact finding committee, announced that the human relations agency plans to conduct a “scientific sociological study” of the reasons behind the anti-Semitic episodes involving large numbers of students at the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville and North Adams State and Babson Colleges in Massachusetts. The findings will be utilized by the ADL to propose remedial action.
A resolution authorizing the study is to be taken up by ADL’s national executive committee which is meeting here through Sunday of The Breakers Hotel.
Commenting on the attacks on a predominantly Jewish fraternity at the UF Gainesville campus and the anti-Jewish overtones of abuses against the Brandeis University soccer team, Reich stated that “ADL and the Jewish community are seriously concerned. We have not seen such a spate of anti-Semitic episodes as this on college campuses in many years.” Of particular concern, he observed, was that these events occurred within a relatively brief period of time on widely scattered campuses and involved a large number of students.
ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS RECOUNTED
The incident in Florida, involving the Tau Epsilon Phi Fraternity chapter of UF, occurred last Nov. 9 as a mob of some 150 students gathered outside its house. Anti-Semitic epithets were shouted. Consisting of members of other frats, the unruly crowd damaged a fence and tore up shrubbery before scattering when campus police arrived.
When the Brandeis University soccer team played a semi-final match at North Adams College last Nov. 11, Adams team members verbally abused the visitors with anti-Semitic slurs. A complaint registered with game officials led to ejection of one offending Adams player, but, soon afterwards, similar anti-Jewish shouting was heard from the stands, where some 2500 spectators were seated. A plea was required over the public address system for an end to the bigoted insults.
Only a few weeks earlier, an upcoming game at Babson College with the Brandeis soccer team was marked by anti-Semitic behavior. There was at least one report that “kill the Jews” was shouted during practice, and on the day of the match, a sign was found in the school dining room proclaiming “Happy Holocaust.”
Representatives of ADL’s Florida office in Miami and New England office in Boston met with university officials in their respective region to insist that attention be given to the incidents.
COUNTER-MEASURES BEING TAKEN
Following a meeting with ADL representatives, UF president Robert Marston condemned the presence of anti-Semitism and outlined a comprehensive, university-wide educational program to root out anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice from the university campus. It is currently being formulated with ADL consultation.
The ADL in mid-December took up the North Adams incident with the Massachusetts education commissioner and a representative of the Board of Higher Education, which oversees the Massachusetts State University system of which North Adams is a unit. The outcome was a decision to convene a conference to plan a statewide educational program to combat religious and racial prejudice on the campus to be attended by all public and private university administrators. The president and the athletic director at Babson each issued statements deploring campus bigotry and apologizing for the soccer team’s behavior.
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