Universities across the country have had vastly different responses to the Israel-Hamas war. Many California schools, such as USC, UCLA and UC Berkeley, initially avoided the issue or claimed it was too complicated or nuanced. The University of Florida stood out as one of the few major universities that released a strong statement condemning both Hamas and the rising antisemitism. 

UF’s president Ben Sasse  — the same Ben Sasse who voted to convict President Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 insurrection as a Republican Senator for Nebraska — handled his response to Hamas’ attack with poise and compassion. 

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“I will not tiptoe around this simple fact: What Hamas did is evil and there is no defense for terrorism. This shouldn’t be hard,” he wrote. “Sadly, too many people in elite academia have been so weakened by their moral confusion that, when they see videos of raped women, hear of a beheaded baby or learn of a grandmother murdered in her home, the first reaction of some is to ‘provide context’ and try to blame the raped women, beheaded baby or the murdered grandmother. In other grotesque cases, they express simple support for the terrorists.”

Florida State University, the University of Miami, the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and Brandeis University issued similarly strong responses calling for solidarity with Israel. 

President Carol Folt failed to achieve this moral clarity. Folt’s initial statement on Oct. 8 was far too ambiguous about the terrorist attacks and how they impacted USC’s 3,000 Jewish students. 

“The grave events and the tragic loss of life taking place right now in Israel and Gaza fill us with such sadness,” Folt wrote in the statement. “Our hearts go out to the millions of people there and to our own Trojan students, staff, faculty, families, and alumni hurting and in fear for loved ones. We must — by working together with empathy and compassion — keep this anger and fear from harming and overwhelming our own community.”

Nearly every Jewish person knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone, who lost their life in the attack. It was thus discomforting for Jewish students to read a statement that failed to define the attack as terrorism.

Folt’s second statement on Oct. 10 correctly referred to Hamas’ actions as a “terrorist attack.” But this adjustment was too little, too late, and still lacked a definitive moral stance on antisemitism. The seeds of anti-Israel hate were already sprouting on campus. 

Folt’s nuanced attitude helped to cultivate a friendly environment for anti-Israel students. On Oct. 17, Students for Justice in Palestine promoted a so-called “peaceful protest” to “call for an end to the siege and genocide of Gaza.” 

Personally, I did not feel safe walking by the protest, especially with the repeated chanting of, “There is only one solution, Intifada revolution” as more than one hundred students marched across campus. 

According to Britannica, an “intifada” is defined as “uprisings of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip aimed at ending Israel’s occupation of those territories and creating an independent Palestinian state” — historically resulting in aggressive and deadly violence. 

To my ears, this chant sounded like the Nazi’s “Final Solution” to the “Jewish question” that led to the genocide of six million Jews only 80 years ago. I felt I was witnessing the 1930s Nuremberg rallies during the rise of the Nazi party while walking through the quad.

The University did nothing to stop what I perceived to be heartbreaking hate speech that aggressively promoted violence against Israel, which is increasingly resulting in hate crime upticks against Jews everywhere, like me, my friends and my family. 

As the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor who lost dozens of immediate relatives in Nazi concentration camps, the horror of what is happening on the USC campus is sickening. Never has “never again” had such little meaning.

When students parade through campus using language that is similar to that of the 1988 Hamas Charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel and the death of Jews everywhere, it should be easy to understand why Jewish students are alarmed. The “intifada” chant outwardly opposed the idea of a Jewish state. Yet Folt seems to lack this awareness or chooses not to embrace it.

In response to a request for comment on the nature and language of Folt’s two statements, the University wrote, “Her first update, one of the first to be issued from a university, was designed to get out fast to provide information to students about resources and additional safety precautions being put in place in real time. Much was still unfolding, and so with the second post, she wanted to expand and clarify her statement, and make clear the university would continue to provide updates as appropriate.” 

Its response also added that each day, “[Folt] and her leadership team reach out to students, student leaders, faculty, parents, and many others in the Trojan community to learn what support is needed.” 

If the University is making such outreach, it has not trickled down to me or my peers, even as our safety fears grow. The only update that I saw on social media after receiving this statement was Folt cheering on the football team in the “big game” against Utah Saturday.

I am not asking USC to take a side or solve the world’s problems. I simply believe Folt should recognize that students chanting “One solution, intifada revolution” contributes to the rise in antisemitism, often referred to as the oldest form of hate. 

There should be no room for hate on the USC campus. Do you agree, President Folt? Antisemitism should not be complicated for administrators with PhDs. UF and other universities showed us that a university can stand behind its Jewish students and make them feel safe on campus.

Do better, USC.

Laya Albert is a sophomore writing about the significant issues in states beyond California. Her column, “The Other 49,” runs every other Monday.