SLC President Claims ‘Common Ground’ Is for Everyone—Jewish Students Know It’s Not

The intense anti-Semitic environment that has been allowed to flourish at Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) and has even been promoted by its president, Cristle Collins Judd, has rightfully drawn the attention of members of Congress, federal agencies, and the press.

SLC has become an increasingly hostile place for Zionist and Jewish students, with open calls for violence against Jews becoming disturbingly common. As scrutiny of the college intensifies, it’s important to state clearly that President Judd has repeatedly failed to speak openly and honestly about campus life. This is a serious problem. A college president bears responsibility for fostering the pursuit of truth, the very purpose or telos of higher education. Instead, Judd has prioritized her public image over candor. Rather than acknowledging and addressing the reality on campus, she has consistently misrepresented campus conditions as being inclusive to all students, though Jewish students face hostility.

The most recent example occurred during a public presentation this month during the SLC’s reunion weekend. Speaking at the Barbara Walters campus center, Judd opened her presentation with numerous false statements about the SLC being an inclusive and welcoming institution for all students.

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Judd then turned to speak about the physical campus itself, highlighting a relatively new and prominent building at its center: the HUB, which stands for Humanity, Understanding, and Belonging. Despite repeated requests from Hillel and Jewish students over the years, the HUB does not include a Hillel or any dedicated space for Jewish students. That absence is especially glaring given what the HUB does include.

Judd noted that the building houses an LGBTQIA+ space and a space called “Common Ground,” both of which are not open to all students. In describing Common Ground, Judd briefly veered toward the truth but quickly backpedaled. Around the 17:25 mark in her remarks, her explanation faltered as she claimed the HUB was “an ideal place to host Common Ground, which is the affinity space for the … that … the space for all of our various student identity affinity groups.” This is simply false. On campus and to students, Common Ground is not presented as an open and fully accessible space to all students.

In reality, Common Ground is  “a space at Sarah Lawrence dedicated to serving students of color and student-of-color identity groups.” The room is well-furnished with a large flat-screen TV, couches, games, and a foosball table, serving as a respite for socializing, studying, and gathering, but it is unmistakably a space intended for regular and casual use only by some members of SLC’s campus community.

The mission of Common Ground, as shared on its Instagram page, makes it clear that this center is not intended for all. Rather, “Common Ground is a space whose mission is to serve students of color and students-of-color identity groups as a safe meeting, event, and lounge space, as well as a resource center.”

 

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The access policy for Common Ground makes this exceptionality unambiguous, unlike the neighboring “spiritual space,” which is open to any student with an ID card; both Common Ground and the LGBTQIA+ space require permission to access. Per an online form, “The Spiritual Space has open access. Common Ground and the LGBTQIA+ Space request key card access.” These are not truly inclusive but exclusive; the form explicitly states that “The LGBTQIA+ Space is for LGBTQIA+ students and LGBTQIA+ student identity groups to engage in dialogues regarding the realities and perceptions of their identities,” and that Common Ground is an “Affinity Space for Students of Color.”

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Hillel—the national Jewish student-facing support organization that is on hundreds of campuses nationwide—was not given space, despite requesting it, offering to pay the costs, and with so many students needing a space for support and respite. Students have shared with me a need to meet and have had to do so in hiding and with security since the October 7^th massacre in Israel.

While this one-line remark from Judd in her public message to the community may seem minor, it should not be taken as such. Judd knowingly and willfully presented a misrepresentation of what campus life is actually like. Common Ground is not a space intended for all of SLC’s affinity groups; it has a far narrower mission. And while Common Ground  is welcome to do that, Judd should just be honest about what is going on in the campus “HUB” and be transparent that some groups were given space and others were not.

Common Ground sits at the symbolic heart of campus, sending a powerful and disturbing message about who is valued at SLC, and who is not. While all student groups deserve space and Common Ground as a space itself is not the issue at all, Jewish and Zionist students have been repeatedly denied similar space and support from the college. In her remarks, President Judd misrepresented campus life, downplayed the hostility facing Jewish students, and concealed her own bias. Her gestures toward dialogue appear more about optics than substance. As scrutiny of the college grows, none of Judd’s claims should be taken at face value; they should be fully scrutinized and fact-checked. Judd has not been honest, and she has knowingly allowed anti-Semitism to thrive.

Image: “Sarah Lawrence Westlands” by Djrobgordon on Wikimedia Commons