On-campus student groups are refusing to complete a set of modules on Brightspace reviewing NYU’s student conduct and non-discrimination policies, the People’s Solidarity Coalition and Jews Against Zionism said in an Instagram post Tuesday. The modules, titled the “How We Engage Toolkit,” instructs students to agree to the university’s recently updated student conduct guidelines, which now include “code words, like ‘Zionist,’” as examples of potentially discriminatory speech.
The toolkit currently has two of four modules open. The first provides an overview of the program and the second instructs students to read three student conduct policies and watch a 23-minute video about its non-discrimination policy. The section ends with a request for students to confirm that they consent to policies detailed in the modules. The deadline to complete the modules — failure of which NYU said would lead to “various reminders,” “targeted communications” and “NYU Home login delays” — was yesterday.
Pro-Palestinian student groups, including NYU PSC and the university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, condemned the updated guidelines in the Tuesday Instagram post and said the training “erroneously positions Zionists as a marginalized group.” In a statement to WSN, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said that by mandating the non-discrimination training in the online toolkit, the university aims to reduce “all forms of hate, including antisemitism and Islamophobia” on campus.
“The reason it is required is because it is important and valuable information,” Beckman said. “Because it is clear that incidents of antisemitism have been on the rise nationally and because students will be held accountable for abiding by our rules.”
In a video under the second module, senior vice president for university life Jason Pina cited a “rise of disturbing incidents of hatred and bigotry.” Pina also said the training modules were part of NYU’s obligations to Title VI, the civil rights laws protecting racial and ethnic identities on college campuses. After a monthslong legal battle with three Jewish students accusing the university of being indifferent to incidents of antisemitism on campus, NYU reached a confidential settlement under which it created a Title VI coordinator position in the Office of Equal Opportunity.
“It felt very odd and weird,” an undergraduate student, who requested to remain anonymous, said in an interview with WSN. “It was frustrating to see certain subjects stressed more than others.”
In the next few months, students will be directed to a third and fourth section of the modules that will focus on “more meaningful, empathetic dialogue on issues of identity.” The set of modules come after dozens of students, faculty and alumni were arrested in a police sweep of two pro-Palestinian encampments in Gould Plaza and outside the Paulson Center last semester. After facing significant backlash for her crackdown on the protests, NYU president Linda Mills said the “only path forward” at the university was to host listening sessions with members of the community. Beckman said the sessions garnered “calls for greater clarity” that prompted the changes to the student conduct guidelines.
Beckman said that aside from the additional modules, NYU has “greatly enhanced” baseline non-discrimination and anti-harassment training for first-year students and added an additional “range of initiatives, resources, programs and training.”
“It just tells everyone, ‘Hey, don’t discriminate against people,’ which does not really do anything,” undergraduate student Jesse Hoffman said. “It seems that it’s their way to try and cool some tensions down with students heading into this new year.”
Contact Addison Alvarado and Zahraa Al-Saif at [email protected].