SEATTLE — University of Washington students, faculty and staff felt unwelcome on what they perceived as a hostile campus during a year characterized by protests, an encampment and widespread tensions after Oct. 7, 2023, new task forces focused on antisemitism and Islamophobia found.
The report, which includes focus group responses collected during the height of a Palestinian liberation encampment on the main UW campus, concluded the university failed to ensure all members of the community felt welcome.
The two task forces were established by UW President Ana Mari Cauce in March to investigate antisemitism and Islamophobia.
The task forces said filing a joint report is not meant to equate antisemitism and Islamophobia but rather that this moment “puts into sharp relief the need to examine both in a shared context.”
UW community studies antisemitism, Islamophobia on campus
In surveys completed by about 6,700 University of Washington community members, many who identified as Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, Palestinian or Middle Eastern/North African reported feeling unwelcome on campus.
Source: University of Washington (Reporting by Lauren Girgis, graphic by Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times)
Both focus groups completed surveys between May 6 and 24, days after the encampment began on the university Quad. Participants in both groups reported feeling alienated and unwelcome based on their identities. More than 6,700 members of the UW community completed a survey, and 51 people sat in focus groups.
The encampment and protests were perceived to cross “lines of argument and advocacy to call, implicitly or explicitly, for violence,” according to the report. The encampment, which lasted 18 days and came to include 100 tents, ended after administrators reached an agreement with demonstrators. During the UW encampment, university buildings were tagged with statements like “Free Gaza,” “End Israel” and “Piss on Zionists.”
“While I know some disagree, very strongly so, I’m personally thankful that we arrived at a peaceful resolution and that we were able to have a peaceful finals week and joyous graduation events,” Cauce said during her annual address on Tuesday.
Focus group participants were asked if they thought UW leaders adequately responded to the needs of communities affected by the war in Gaza and what UW’s administration could do to improve.
Participants in both groups reported not knowing how to address encounters with bigotry and having consistent concerns about enforcement of rules and policies.
Among those surveyed, 60% of Jewish students and 92% of Israeli students said they felt unwelcome on campus at least once based on their identities, with 28% of Jewish students and 75% of Israeli students reporting this happened frequently in the last school year.
During the same time frame, 80% of Muslim students, 72% of Arab or Middle Eastern/North African students, and 78% of Palestinian students surveyed said they felt unwelcome based on their identities at least once, with 35% of Muslim students, 28% of Arab/MENA students, and a third of Palestinian students reporting this happened frequently.
Sixty-five percent of Jewish students and 74% of Muslim students felt they needed to hide their identity at least once. Nearly all Israeli students (95%), and 77% of Palestinian students, said they felt the need to hide their identity at least once.
A vast majority of students who experienced hostility during 2023-24 reported it was more severe than in previous years.
Staff reported hostile and toxic work environments. One person wrote: “No one cares about our lives. It’s a very toxic environment. The experience of being singled out because of your identity is … heartbreaking, especially coming from people whose politics are aligned with human rights, anti-war and anti-racism, but not if the bodies piled up are of Palestinians.” Another staff member who identified as anti-Zionist and Jewish said they had been criticized as “misguided, ‘self-hating’ or antisemitic” for supporting protests calling for a cease fire and ended up losing a relationship with a co-worker.
A Jewish student reported that a professor had called Jews “white supremacists” and that they had been surrounded by multiple fully masked men while wearing the Star of David. The student wrote that they had a panic attack and didn’t return to campus until three weeks later. A faculty member wrote that they hid their yarmulke anytime they taught a class near the Quad.
“These groups that were the focus of either the antisemitism or Islamophobia task force felt that the administration was especially unsupportive of their specific community, instead favoring the ‘other.’ There were no winners here,” Cauce said Tuesday, later acknowledging trust in her leadership eroded.
Cauce, who has led the school for a decade, will retire as president in 2025, she announced in June.
Recommendations to UW leaders from the two task forces included forming committees and curricula on antisemitism and Islamophobia, establishing a role to address incidents of bias, and enforcing restrictions on campus safety.
