UC Santa Barbara Under Federal Discrimination Probe
Investigation Comes on Heels of Anti-Zionist Messages Being Posted Throughout School’s MultiCultural Center
The U.S. Department of Education announced last week that it is opening a discrimination investigation into UC Santa Barbara.
While the reasons behind the investigation are still unclear, it comes on the heels of inflammatory, anti-Zionist messages (regarding the Israel–Palestine conflict) being posted throughout the school’s MultiCultural Center (MCC) in February.
The handwritten signs — multiple of which targeted student government president Tessa Veksler, who is Jewish — attracted attention when they were shared on Instagram and have been labeled by Veksler and others as anti-Semitic.
Signs said, “Zionists NOT WELCOME” and “Stay away from our kitchen too!” in reference to plans to use the MCC’s kitchen to cook a Shabbat meal for UCSB’s Jewish students. Many also singled out Veksler, the daughter of Soviet Jewish refugees, whose office is in the MCC.
One sign read, “You can run but you can’t hide Tessa Veksler!” Multiple others accused her of supporting genocide. Another read, “Get these Zionist[s] out of office.”
In response, the university condemned the signage and said it would conduct a bias incident review. It also suspended the MCC, which in turn led to social-media doxing, faculty protests, and hunger strikes, as student discourse around the ongoing conflict has only risen in temperature.
The UCSB investigation, which was opened on March 21, is just one of many federal Title VI “shared ancestry” investigations opened into colleges and K-12 school districts since the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war.
If it does relate to the anti-Zionist signage, then the department’s investigators would rule on whether the school should have taken more action. In the past, they have pressured schools to provide additional resources to Jewish students or lose federal funding.
“The university is committed to supporting our students and to investigating and addressing all reports made to it,” university spokesperson Kiki Reyes said on Monday. “We look forward to working with the Department of Education.”
Veksler did not respond to requests for comment by press time, but in March, the Associated Students president told the Independent she felt “a strong sense of unease on and off campus, and a deep sadness for what’s happened.”
“Individuals on this campus need to learn how to engage in civil discourse,” Veksler said. “We need to humanize one another in divisive situations like this. I’m a human, too.”
