As the last agenda item at the Austin Community College’s board meeting last month, board members approved updates to the college’s free speech policies in accordance with Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order calling for more protections against antisemitism.
Abbott’s March 27 order mandates all public universities and colleges to better protect against rising antisemitism on campuses by adopting Texas’s definition of the term and “review and update free speech policies” to protect against anti-Jewish acts. He added that colleges must ensure “that groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Committee and Students for Justice in Palestine are disciplined for violating these policies.”
Islamophobia ― which has also been rising since Oct. 7 when a deadly attack by Hamas, the militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, against Israel ignited the ongoing war in Gaza ― was notably left out of Abbott’s order calling for better free speech protections on college campuses.
Read more from the Austin American-Statesman.
