NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A group of about 60 faculty members at Yale University are calling on the president of the college to take action, amid pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
On Wednesday, those demonstrations entered day six, with students camping out on the lawn at Cross Campus.
Earlier in the week, the Jewish faculty members wrote a strongly-worded letter to Yale President Peter Salovey, expressing their concerns.
“Antisemitism at Yale can no longer be tolerated,” said Dr. Pnina Weiss, a Professor of Pediatrics for the Yale School of Medicine.
“Students have reported to me, they’ve reported to my colleagues that they’re afraid to come to class,” said Evan Morris, PhD, with the Yale School of Medicine.
Morris and Pnina were one of dozens of other faculty members that decided on Monday they’d had enough, and needed to speak out.
“We’re all here together as part of a community to teach and to learn from each other. And we can’t do either of those things if one group is so abusive of others,” Morris said.
Morris said these problems have persisted for a while, but became worse at the start of the Israel Hamas war. Then, when he learned a Jewish student was allegedly assaulted during Saturday’s protests, he took action. He and the other educators are calling on the president to stop the demonstrations, call out and name acts of hate, and enforce school policies, among many other things.
“If the safety of the community cannot be guaranteed, then demonstrations need to be put on hold,” Dr. Weiss said.
In a statement to the community on Monday, President Salovey said, “Members of the Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, Arab, and Palestinian communities reported that the campus environment had become increasingly difficult. We then became aware of police reports identifying harmful acts and threatening language used against individuals at or near the protest sites. Some of the aggressors are believed to be members of the Yale community while others were outsiders. We will not tolerate such behavior nor any open violation of Yale policies that interrupts academic and campus operations. So, we acted consistently with the warnings we had given over several days and escorted the protesters from the plaza.”
At that point, the Yale Police Department arrested 48 students. However, the professors say that doesn’t go far enough.
“I considered it my professional home and it really breaks my heart to see how embroiled in hatred and antisemitism the university had become,” Dr. Weiss said.
As for the protestors? They said their demonstrations are focused on peace.
“If members of the community are feeling unsafe that obviously is something that needs to be addressed. But also, I would like to point out that this is a wide coalition of folks. We have a lot of Jewish folks here, Jews for Ceasefire, JVP, have all been part of the organizing. Effort,” said Chisato Kimura, one of the organizers of the protest and a Yale Law School student.
“One moment of contrition, of playing nice in the sand box doesn’t wipe our six or seven months of intimidation,” Morris said.
FOX61 reached out to the university for a new comment in response to the letter from the group, but never heard back. The professors are giving the president until Thursday evening to respond to their calls to action.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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