Q&A
CUNY's policies on Zionism and antisemitism
1:24:48
·
160 sec
Council Member Dinowitz questions CUNY's policies on including Zionism in their guidance on antisemitism. Chancellor Matos Rodriguez asserts that CUNY's existing policies cover discrimination against Zionism and that they have provided training based on federal guidance and the governor's proclamation.
- Discussion of Title VI guidance from federal administrations
- CUNY's approach to including Zionism in anti-discrimination policies
- Training provided to CUNY personnel on Title VI and antisemitism
Eric Dinowitz
1:24:48
reckon so now I wanna ask you about CUNY policies.
1:24:53
There's been title 6 guidance from the Biden administration on this, from the Trump administration and executive orders, related to defining and including Zionism as part of Jewish identity.
1:25:09
Is there any discussion, or is there any, will you be making decision to include Zionism in any of your guidance, or has any of that information been shared with CUNY faculty?
Felix Matos Rodriguez
1:25:23
Well, I mean, those things are are cover I mean, as part of our policies as we speak now.
1:25:29
Right?
1:25:29
I mean, you cannot discriminate against somebody for being a Zionism, and and that will be a violation of, our existing, our existing policies.
Eric Dinowitz
1:25:38
Right.
1:25:38
Well, that's why the the administration gives concrete examples of when anti Zionism very clearly looks like antisemitism.
1:25:46
But CUNY itself has not made any public statements on that or hasn't made any rules that have been shared with chief diversity officers or presidents.
1:25:55
Correct?
Felix Matos Rodriguez
1:25:56
So that no.
1:25:57
That is not the case.
1:25:58
We have, clearly, based on OCR, right, that talks about, the importance in title 6 cases in, considering the Arab definition of antisemitism as a tool and the governor's, proclamation also has been part of the training that we've been giving all our, CDOs and people that are working with Title 6.
Eric Dinowitz
1:26:21
So I just I just wanna kind of delineate between training and discipline, because the guidelines provided by president Biden, provided by president Trump, and you can also reference NYU, which this year provided guidance to their, to to the members of their community about when anti Zionism becomes straight up anti Semitism.
1:26:46
And so I first wanna talk about discipline.
1:26:48
We'll get to the training in a second.
1:26:50
But does CUNY or can CUNY delineate in the same way that our federal government has and in the same way as other private institutions have?
1:26:59
Can they delineate and provide training to as it relates to discipline about when anti Zionism is anti Semitism?
Felix Matos Rodriguez
1:27:06
So we have provided guidance in those trainings about, those particular matters to all the campus personnel dealing with title 6.
1:27:17
And that is consistent with what OCR, suggests, which is the federal entity that oversees title 6 and also with the governor's proclamation.
