Tulane University has the highest percentage of Jewish students (around 40%) of any secular university in the country. Tulane student Sarah Me wrote a truly idiotic and reprehensible piece for an off-campus conservative publication defending Kanye West’s recent antisemitic remarks. I don’t see any good reason to give her asinine defense further play, but if you really want to read it, you can find it here.
Students making asinine defenses of antisemites, or indeed making antisemitic comments themselves, such as NYU law students talking about the “Zionist grip on the media” and the “Islamophobic, Zionist-funded US and Western media,” is unfortunately not news. But what happened next should be.
Ma’s commentary apparently was met with death threats.
Ma met with Tulane’s Associate Vice President and Dean of Students, Erica Woodley, who advised Ma to leave campus for at least a couple of weeks because Tulane’s administration does not believe she is safe on campus,” the Dissident reported. “According to Ma, Dean Woodley told her that Tulane could ‘probably’ keep her safe on campus but ‘probably not’ directly off campus. Ma is arranging with her professors to complete the semester online.”
Assuming these allegations are true, the proper response here would have been for Tulane to (1) do everything in its power to keep Ma safe; and (2) do everything in its power to investigate the threats, and if found to be genuine, find and prosecute the perpetrators. Instead, Tulane is “investigating” the student herself even though, as FIRE reports, her offensive comments are fully protected by Tulane’s own policies.