Students describe harassment, disrupted research and fear after campus protests
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Summary
Dozens of students at the U.S. Commission briefing described antisemitic vandalism, threats and hostile protest environments and said federal actions sometimes left them feeling neglected or instrumentalized.
Students from Harvard, Cal Poly, Tulane, American University and other campuses told commissioners they have experienced harassment, vandalism, intimidation and a chilling effect on campus life since October 2023.
Tova Kaplan, a Harvard senior, said she and other Jewish students were “instrumentalized” when sweeping federal actions were framed as protecting students but executed without substantial student outreach. "Using Jewish students as a pretext to gut federal support for universities ... makes us feel instrumentalized," she testified.
Sarah Silverman (Harvard), who described a hate crime on her first day on campus, recounted that her mezuzah was torn from her door and later found wedged in a wall. "Seeing it gone wasn't just unsettling, it was absolutely terrifying," she told the commission.
Other student witnesses described large, masked demonstrations with chants that they said targeted Jewish students and Jewish spaces, professors who used exclusionary language, and campuses where research funding and international‑student visas were threatened by federal actions. Several students said administrators’ responses were sometimes slow or inadequate; others said federal pressure had real consequences for students relying on research funding and visas.
Students and some campus witnesses urged the commission to ensure federal remedies protect actual victims and recommended increasing OCR capacity, designating Title VI coordinators on campuses, better reporting systems, and sustained monitoring of resolution agreements.
Why this matters: Student testimony provided concrete examples of harassment and detailed how enforcement tactics and funding disruptions affected campus safety, academic life and student well‑being. Commissioners said they will include student perspectives in the commission’s fact‑finding record.