USC is included on the list of schools under investigation by the new Task Force to Combat Antisemitism released on February 28. The task force, created by President Donald Trump’s executive order in late January, says its mission is to eradicate antisemitism at schools and colleges.
The Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is set to embark on a college campus tour, visiting 10 universities across the country to investigate if there were any violations of federal law that failed to protect Jewish students. The investigation’s time period focuses on the spring 2024 collegiate pro-Palestinian protests, according to the DOJ’s website.
The 10 campuses include: George Washington University, Harvard University, UC Berkeley, USC, UCLA, New York University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Columbia University.
USC received national attention for its pro-Palestinian protests in the spring of 2024. The protests included encampments in Alumni Park and “die-ins” on campus lawns. LAPD was called by President Carol Folt to clear the encampments, leading to multiple students being arrested and subsequently placed on interim suspension.
In April of 2024, a spray-painted swastika was discovered on a fencepost outside of campus.
It is unclear when the task force will be visiting USC.
“We’re going to these schools and we’re going to tell the board of trustees that they have a fiduciary duty to protect Jewish American students like everyone else,” said counsel to U.S. Attorney General and task force leader Leo Terrell on Monday in a Fox News interview.
“If they fail to do so… we’re going to take all the federal funding away from them, we’re going to sue them under Title VII, we’re going to sue them under Title VI, we’re going to make sure every Jewish-American student on campus is protected,” Terrell stated. The universities have yet to receive information as to how they are going to be examined.
The faculty responses of the 10 universities included have varied. The executive director of USC Hillel, Dave Cohn, was optimistic about the presence of the task force and their intentions.
“I welcome that serious attention is being paid,” said Cohn. “I do think any time that additional attention is brought to the issue of antisemitism, it can carry the risk of overshadowing a story that is often quite positive, and so my hope would be that this effort is really interested in doing so in a way that students feel the impact of it.”
John Efron, the Koret Professor of Jewish History at UC Berkeley, noted that the task force’s visit may seem unusual, yet appropriate, to ensure the safety of the university’s Jewish community.
“The Jewish campus community wants to feel safe, wanted and heard just like any other constituency on campus. It is the obligation of the [Berkeley] administration to ensure these basic rights,” Efron said.
With the inauguration of Rich Lyons, the newly-elected chancellor of UC Berkeley, Efron said he is hopeful the university will “begin to repair the bonds of trust that were sorely tested last year.”
However, no further information has been released confirming how the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will determine distress among Jewish students or who they will speak to.
While some think that the task force’s future visits are a positive presence, others, such as USC professor Paul Lerner, see it as problematic. Lerner is a history professor specializing in German and Jewish history who signed the Letter from Jewish Faculty and Staff regarding the Executive Order on Antisemitism, which was published Monday morning. As of March 5, the letter has over 77 signatures.
“I’m suspicious that the USC administration is being all too cooperative in what I see as a really politically motivated visit that’s not about creating better or even safer spaces on campus, rather about punishing certain people for their political views,” Lerner said.
His main concern is that the task force will “intimidate some into being quiet.” He’s also worried that it will frighten students who are not United States citizens, as the executive order directs federal agencies to investigate and, in some cases, “remove” those who take place in what the task force deems to be “discrimination; denial of access to campus common areas and facilities, including libraries and classrooms; and intimidation, harassment, and physical threats and assault.”
However, Lerner believes that antisemitism still needs to be addressed but is concerned about the framing of such conversations.
“I believe that antisemitism is best addressed in a framework that works against other kinds of hatreds as well, including racism, homophobia, Islamophobia and others,” Lerner said. “It should be the culture of a university where we should be able to discuss, disagree, dissent, but to do it freely, without fear of retribution.”
When asked for a statement regarding the task force’s upcoming visit, the university said only that it “denounced antisemitism in all its forms and has taken strong actions to protect all of our students — including members of our Jewish community — from illegal discrimination of any kind.”