The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign set a precedent on September 3, 2024, issuing a Memorandum of Mutual Understandings with the Jewish United Fund, Hillel International, and Illini Hillel, "with respect to the shared and common goal of creating a safe and welcoming environment for Jewish students." 

As explained by Hillel International, "The agreement includes a declaration from UIUC that the protection offered by the University’s nondiscrimination policy extends to harassment or discrimination of Jewish students, including harassment or discrimination based on Jewish students’ connections to Israel and Zionism. For the first time, the University provides detailed examples of discrimination and harassment across protected classes as part of its Nondiscrimination Policy. 

These examples specifically include antisemitic discrimination and/or harassment that may violate University policies such as: 

• Verbal abuse or use of antisemitic slurs or stereotypes directed at an individual.
• Blaming a student for actions of other individuals of their actual or perceived shared identity, or for policies of a particular country or region that the student is actually or perceived to be from (e.g. blaming a Jewish student for Israel’s policies).
• Physical assault, physical force, physical obstruction of an individual’s path, intimidation, or stalking.  
• Telephonic or social media display of derogatory, demeaning, offensive, or hostile messages or materials.
• Making statements orally or on social media that call for the destruction of a protected classification in whole or in part, whether explicitly or by implication.

Additionally, the University will publish a summary report of bias incidents every month, commit to mandatory antisemitism trainings for administration and students, and hire an individual with demonstrated expertise in campus antisemitism to enhance compliance and recommend changes to University practices and policies."

While we applaud this historic agreement, we question why it is currently limited to students on the Urbana-Champaign campus.

Jews deserve to be safe and secure across the state. 

We call on the University of Illinois Board of Trustees to voluntarily extend the reach of this memorandum to students, faculty, and staff across the University System. Doing so will ensure the Jewish individuals are treated with the same respect and protections, irrespective of their campus and student status.

Let's make the University of Illinois System a model of equity and mutual respect!

Please sign this petition to urge the Board of Trustees to extend these important protections.