In a move to combat incidents of intolerance on college and university campuses, President Jehuda Reinharz has joined over 300 other university presidents who have signed a pledge against intimidation campuses. The letter ran in the New York Times last week in the form of an ad paid for by the American Jewish Committee, based in New York. The letter, authored by former Dartmouth College President James O. Freedman and former Cornell University President Frank Rhodes, decries hatred and intimidation on campuses, but calls attention only to incidents directed at Jewish students and supporters of Israel. The narrow focus of the letter has appropriately deterred many university presidents -- including those of Boston College, Harvard and Tufts -- from joining the pledge.Documented incidents of prejudice against Zionists and Jews are evidence that this type of hatred does exist. Close-minded course offerings, such as one at the University of California, Berkeley, that openly admits to being pro-Palestinian do not have a place in the classroom. Our universities should expose us to a wealth of ideas, not direct us toward a given professor's personal political ideology. Anti-Semitism does exist, and is deplorable.
The pledge, for example, refuses to acknowledge that many Muslim and Arab students feel they have been intimidated on college campuses, following the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Therefore, this petition is not open-minded enough for Brandeis -- a liberal and tolerant university, dedicated to social justice -- to sign.

Just as Reinharz may have been swayed by donor interests to withdraw advertising from National Public Radio in response to coverage that some find biased against Israel, it would probably upset the same group if Brandeis did not lead this campaign. It goes without saying that a significant portion of Brandeis's funding is from the Jewish community, and, whether or not the University will outwardly acknowledge it, Brandeis retains a strong Jewish identity.

Prejudice can be directed at any group, regardless of Freedman's apocryphal comment to the New York Times that acts of hatred at universities are targeted more frequently against Jews and Zionists than against Muslims and Arabs. Brandeis itself has seen incidents of anti-gay and anti-Arab hate speech on campus in the past month, and unfortunately a few people will always seek to intimidate minority groups. A significant portion of this campus feels excluded from the majority, as highlighted by the infamous "Men's Room" incident of last fall, and the discussion that subsequently unfolded.

Brandeis's own Rights and Responsibilities Handbook appropriately protects students from intimidation and calls for discipline of students whose hateful acts threaten others. Yet, not all universities have adopted such tolerant, specific policies. It is neither conclusive, nor concrete. To realize any actual change on campuses, specific guidelines and consequences must be included. Words are great, but actions are essential.