Muslim advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) publicized its designation of Northwestern as one of 14 “hostile campuses” toward Palestinian, Muslim, Arab and Jewish community members in a report earlier this month.
The designation came with CAIR’s launch of a new website — “Hostile Campuses” — that ranks universities and colleges based on the severity of reported discriminatory incidents. The website aims to protect those who are “opposing occupation, apartheid and genocide” from such incidents, CAIR said on its website.
The new webpage is intended as “a resource for students, parents, educators and community members who are invested in promoting supportive learning environments,” the page reads.
CAIR’s report on NU refers to the 2025 Free Speech College Rankings, where NU was ranked in the “poor” category compared to other U.S. colleges.
It also mentions an April 2024 civil rights complaint filed against the Pritzker School of Law by Palestine Legal, an organization that provides legal advice and support to those standing for justice in Palestine, with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The complaint was filed by four students who were allegedly targeted by “anti-Palestinian discrimination and harassment by fellow students, professors and Northwestern Law administrators,” the report reads.
Another case referenced is the arrests of four NU employees in July 2024 following their participation in the pro-Palestine encampment in the spring.
NU was originally designated an “institution of particular concern” in October. Other universities on the list included the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan and Columbia University.
To make its rankings, CAIR invites students, staff, and faculty to complete the “Report a Hostile Campus” form on the updated webpage. This puts their campus in consideration to become a university of potential concern.
The new website is part of a larger campaign by CAIR, called the “Unhostile Campus Campaign,” which encourages prospective students and their families to make informed decisions when considering universities, the website reads.
In an interview with The Daily last fall, President Michael Schill said that while students should grapple with ideas that are different from their own, they should never be in a situation where they feel unsafe.
“Students should feel challenged, and they should sometimes feel challenged by uncomfortable ideas, but they shouldn’t be threatened, where they can’t do their best work,” Schill said. “I truly believe that Northwestern, while we’ve had some incidents that I’m not proud of, has generally behaved well over the past year, and what we need to do is further up our game.”
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