Williams College is under federal investigation over concerns that its student government “violated antidiscrimination law” by refusing to recognize a pro-Israel group. In late April, the Council debated and ultimately rejected a proposal to create the Williams Initiative for Israel, dubbed “WIFI.”

The Williams administration initially played down the College Council’s decision. President Maud Mandel originally stated that WIFI could obtain “most” of the benefits of registered student organizations without approval from the Council.  She retroactively revised this position by promising the pro-Israel organization equal access to “all” services available to registered student groups, which include “spaces for meetings and events” and other campus resources. Ultimately, an official letter from the Office of the President condemned the College Council rejection of WIFI, and censured its process for evaluating WIFI’s legitimacy on solely “political grounds.” This marked a departure from the student government’s pledge to not judge “a proposed group’s politics as a criterion for review.” Mandel also claimed the decision to be at odds with Article V, Section 3 of the Council’s bylaw on the “Prohibition Against Discrimination in Student Organizations.” The whole affair not only provoked intervention from the administration but also that from concerned, vocal onlookers.

Williams spokesperson Greg Shook said that the college is open to working with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in Boston, which received a complaint about the incident in early May from David Bernstein, a law professor at George Mason University. The professor issued a report after reading the transcript of the meeting when the Council voted to deny WIFI recognition. The College Council chose not to publish a live stream of the vote and published meeting minutes “without any speaker names in a document accessible only to students and faculty with Williams emails.” Bernstein reproached the decision as an act of discrimination against Jewish students on the belief that “the vast majority of American Jews support Israel.” He cited a 2018 poll from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to corroborate the claim. Bernstein was also perturbed by the extent to which Jewish students were targeted by anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric and attitudes, much of which is detailed in a report published by the Williams College student newspaper. The same report states that WIFI was the first applicant in over a decade to be rejected despite meeting all required bylaws. Bernstein described the anti-Semitic vitriol, which included accusations of genocide against Israel, as “so facially absurd and contrary to facts that it can only be explained by antisemitism, and is resonant of historical blood libel.” Bernstein noted that the anti-Jewish animus predicating the Council’s decision was demonization of Israel, which is anti-Semitic according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism.

Boston’s OCR is investigating whether the College Council’s decision violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act which prohibits “discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin, including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.” OCR has not made any determination on the merits of the complaint, but has stated that it was “filed in a timely manner and was within its jurisdiction” for the agency to open an investigation. The Williams College acrimony not only demonstrates how a working definition of antisemitism helps administrators to discern and adjudicate discrimination against Jews, but also highlights the need for institutions in higher education to ensure that Jewish students are neither excluded nor demonized for supporting Israel.

To read Bernstein’s full complaint against Williams College to Boston’s Office for Civil Rights, click here.

West College, the oldest building on the Williams College campus (Source: Wikimedia Commons).