Josh Shapiro: ‘Unacceptable’ some universities can't guarantee student safety amid protests

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Wednesday denounced universities for failing to guarantee the safety of students as some protests over the Israel-Hamas war have turned confrontational and led to antisemitic incidents.

“What we're seeing at Columbia and what we're seeing in some campuses across America, where universities can't guarantee the safety and security of their students, it's absolutely unacceptable,” Shapiro said in exclusive comments to POLITICO reporters.

“If the universities in accordance with their policies can't guarantee the safety and security and well-being of the students, then I think it is incumbent upon a local mayor or local governor or local town councilor, whoever is the local leadership there, to step in and enforce the law," he added.

The Democratic governor’s comments come as pro-Palestinian protests have roiled college campuses across the country. Some Jewish students have said they have felt targeted and that they no longer feel safe on their campuses. University leaders, particularly at Columbia, are grappling with how to allow students their right to protest while protecting Jewish students.

Over the weekend, a prominent rabbi at Columbia urged Jewish students to leave the Upper Manhattan campus because the university “made it clear" that law enforcement "cannot guarantee" their safety.

Demonstrations over the last week have increased as encampments have been set up and local police have arrested protesters at Columbia University, New York University and Yale University. As of Wednesday, the University of Pennsylvania and other campuses in the state, such as Temple, have not seen disruptive protests or arrests. At Swarthmore College, located in a southwestern suburb of Philadelphia, a group of students set up several tents urging the university to divest from Israel, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Shapiro, who is thought to have national political ambitions and is a top surrogate for President Joe Biden, condemned demonstrators in his state who last year chanted accusations of "genocide" outside a Philadelphia falafel restaurant. On Wednesday, he described it as "like 1930s Germany stuff."

He also condemned an incident at a protest of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Pennsylvania's state capitol in which "someone stopped their car, rolled down the window and made terroristic threats against our Muslim neighbors."

"I'm going to continue to speak and act with moral clarity and do my best to be a voice of reason in this moment of tumult," he said.

Shapiro was also thrust into the spotlight last year when the former University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill was under fire for her congressional testimony about the campus administration’s response to antisemitism, which Shapiro slammed as a “failure of leadership.” Magill stepped down in December.

The governor said the state and local governments are in communication with leaders at the University of Pennsylvania, particularly if there's a risk to student safety, and other universities across the country should do the same.

“I do feel a somewhat unique responsibility to speak out when I see this level of antisemitism on our campuses and in our communities,” said Shapiro, one of the country’s four Jewish governors. “We've seen a rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia. I think it is incumbent upon anyone — a governor or anyone else — to speak and act with moral clarity when they see these issues."

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly located Rutgers University, which is in New Jersey.