A coalition of psychological well being skilled organizations issued a letter to the College of Illinois Chicago on Monday, warning that the college has failed to supply “a protected, discrimination-free surroundings for Jewish graduate college students,” citing alleged harassment and biased curriculum.
The assertion, signed by the Jewish Social Work Consortium, Gesher Neighborhood Care, Trauma Knowledgeable Studying Alliance and the Chicagoland Jewish Therapists Group, referred to as on the college to “take fast, seen steps to handle antisemitism and anti-Zionism,” together with well timed investigations and protected reporting mechanisms.
The teams pointed to a collection of incidents detailed by Ally Frank, a social work scholar on the Jane Addams Faculty of Social Work.
Joseph Hendrickson – inventory.adobe.com
Frank informed JNS that on Oct. 6, 2025, as vice chairman of UIC’s Levine Hillel Jewish Pupil Affiliation, she and fellow Hillel scholar leaders have been tabling and elevating consciousness about hostages kidnapped by Hamas when “we ended up being surrounded and mobbed by about three dozen college students” who shouted accusations together with “genocidal child killers.”
“They stated that we’ve blood on our palms,” she stated.
She began recording the scholars to seize faces “in order that once we reported it to the college, hopefully they might determine any of those antagonists,” however that one member of the group “instructed the group to not allow us to depart as a result of they couldn’t belief what we have been going to do with these movies and our ‘Jewy’ connection.”
Police have been referred to as. It took them roughly half-hour to reach, Frank stated.
After reporting the incident to the college and interviews with directors, what adopted was “about three months of primarily radio silence,” Frank informed JNS, till a gathering at which the college informed Frank that there was no violation of the scholar code of conduct and it didn’t “rise to UIC’s stage of harassment.”
Frank is hopeful that partaking instantly with the college, as an alternative of taking authorized motion, will assist create “fast and sustainable coverage change so {that a} future class of scholars doesn’t really feel the identical approach I do and isn’t impacted the identical approach that I’m.”
She informed JNS she has yet one more 12 months left at UIC and has considerations about her identify and face being hooked up to the accusations towards the college, however that “the Code of Ethics for the Nationwide Affiliation of Social Staff requires social staff who’re certain by this code to name out injustice after they see it.”
If the college doesn’t take sufficient steps to handle the difficulty, Frank stated she’s going to seek the advice of together with her crew to determine subsequent steps, “one e mail, one dialog at a time.”
