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Partly Cloudy Touro U offers a ‘safe campus scholarship’
Sanctuary from campus hate
Touro University has announced a “Safe Campus Scholarship” to encouraging students who want to transfer from their current schools due to the uptick in campus antisemitism.
The scholarship will help defray tuition costs of students who transfer to Touro’s New York School of Career & Applied Studies (NYSCAS) from any other college where they may no longer feel comfortable. Touro has successfully maintained a conflict-free campus focused on education and is prepared to provide financial assistance to students who seek a safe and supportive academic environment.
Founded in New York to foster Jewish higher education — and now with 36 campuses and 19,000 students in six states — Touro NYSCAS is offering to cover 25% of tuition for these new enrollees. Touro enrolls a diverse population comprised of students from a wide range of economic, racial and religious backgrounds.
“Our students select Touro because they know they will receive a rigorous education in an environment committed to diversity of students and ideas. Our students should be exclusively focused on their studies and shouldn’t be forced to experience hate and antisemitism while pursuing academic achievement,” said Dr. Alan Kadish, president of Touro University. “Like many, we’ve been appalled by the inaction of university leaders in the face of growing antisemitism and their reluctance to treat all forms of racism equally. This has inspired Touro to create new solutions that both protect people seeking higher education while staying true to our school’s founding mission.”
The Touro Safe Campus Scholarship is available to students who transfer to Touro NYSCAS from another college, following the school’s response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel and its aftermath. Transfer students with a minimum 3.0 GPA or higher are eligible for this scholarship. Awards amount to 25% of tuition per semester, over and above other financial aid for which students are eligible, and can be rewarded for up to seven semesters. Students must maintain 3.0 GPA at Touro to continue receiving the scholarship and it can only be applied toward tuition.
The university ran ads following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and the resulting boom in pro-Hamas and anti-Israel rallies on US campuses. One ad said, “Jewish students are under attack” and “At Touro, you’re home — a place where your values are celebrated.”
Touro University President, Alan Kadish, stated that “we just want to make sure that students have a place [where] they feel comfortable.”
Catholic universities have also invited Jewish students to transfer to their schools. Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio and Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio, said that their campuses offer a refuge.
Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities and a former president of DePaul University in Chicago, told JNS that many Catholic universities “were founded during waves of immigration that included both Catholics and Jews.”
To learn more contact Rabbi Baruch Fogel at robert.fogel2@touro.edu.
Reporting by Touro University and JNS.
