Final Report and Recommendations from Task Force on Preventing and Responding to Antisemitism

Dear Western Community,

Once again, we want to express to you our deep appreciation for all you do to make Western a caring community. Thank you for the care and respect you show one another; this makes Western a very meaningful place to learn and work.

In an earlier email, we shared with you that in recent months the number of antisemitic incidents have increased across the nation, including here at Western. Antisemitism and other acts of discrimination, bias and hate have no place at Western. As noted previously, a task force was charged with recommending ways to educate the campus community about antisemitism and the negative impacts of antisemitic actions targeting Jewish members of our community. The task force has now completed its work and issued a final report. This report is available at https://provost.wwu.edu/.

Along with the recommendations, the report discusses antisemitism in historical and contemporary contexts and identifies promising practices for preventing and responding to antisemitism. We would like to extend our appreciation to the faculty, staff, students and administrators who served on this task force. In the coming weeks, a smaller work group, facilitated by Sue Guenter-Schlesinger, will convene to engage in the work of implementing the task force`s recommendations within the context of Western`s broad efforts to foster learning and working environments that are genuinely inclusive of the many differences that make our community so vibrant.

We encourage you to read the report and engage with us in advancing a genuinely inclusive community at Western.

Sabah Randhawa
President

Brent Carbajal
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs