Friday, March 22, 2019

Suit Charging Campus Anti-Semitism Is Settled

The Lawfare Project announced on Tuesday that a settlement has been reached in Volk v. Board of Trustees, a state court lawsuit by two Jewish students at San Francisco State University alleging anti-Semitic discrimination on campus. The suit in particular focused on the exclusion of Hillel from a campus Know Your Rights fair.  The case was scheduled to go to trial later this month.  Under the settlement, the University will issue a public statement saying that "it understands that, for many Jews, Zionism is an important part of their identity." It will hire a Coordinator of Jewish Student Life, and enhance anti-discrimination enforcement. It will allocate an additional $200,000 to promote viewpoint diversity and will allocate space on campus for a mural depicting such diversity. A similar federal court lawsuit was dismissed last October. (See prior posting.) Jewish News of Northern California reported on the settlement.