EXTREMISMNew Report Card to Assess, Rank Campus Responses to Antisemitism

In the face of growing antisemitism across U.S. college campuses, ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) announced today that it is developing a new tool to evaluate the climate of antisemitism on individual campuses. ADL will publish a “report card” every spring that will offer students, parents, guidance counselors, admissions consultants, concerned alumni, and others with a comprehensive tool and comparative ranking to evaluate how colleges and universities are taking action to combat anti-Jewish hate on their campuses.

In line with ADL’s call for campuses to commit to No Tolerance for Antisemitism, this tool will assess colleges and universities using a set of metrics to assess their performance. This will include clearly identified actions that ADL and other organizations have called for, data regarding incidents on campus, student surveys, and input from campus partners and experts. Ultimately it should enable more effective “comparison shopping” between institutions in the fight against hate.

ADL will be sending a letter this month to campuses across the country with significant Jewish populations informing them of the forthcoming evaluation and requesting data on their efforts to address antisemitism and protect Jewish students. ADL intends to release preliminary results in time for students and parents of incoming first-year students to have this critical information before they need to make their college commitments this spring.  

This new tool is part of a series of measures ADL is taking, not only to sound the alarm about widespread increases in antisemitic incidents, but to implement a range of activities to ensure the safety of Jewish students on campus. In December 2023, ADL released an open letter to campus presidents calling for no tolerance for antisemitism on campus and urging leaders to ensure swift and certain consequences in the wake of a flood of antisemitic harassment and discrimination. The report card will enable students, parents, alumni and other stakeholders to understand whether and how campuses are meeting this commitment.  

“What has been allowed to happen on our campuses is unacceptable,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “Colleges and universities must commit to No Tolerance for Antisemitism, and they must take clear, decisive action steps to achieve that. ADL’s new ratings system will help students and parents to rank schools in a comparative fashion, but it also will offer an opportunity for campuses to demonstrate what they are doing right.”