The following is a statement from Rice President Reginald DesRoches.
Given this past week’s national developments and debates regarding antisemitism on university campuses, I would like to provide clarity on Rice University’s position.
Rice unequivocally considers calls for violence or genocide against Jewish students or any other group of people to be evil, wrong and immoral and they violate Rice’s policies and could violate federal law. We strongly denounce acts of hate speech and antisemitism and will not tolerate them. We will be vigilant for these actions and constantly provide the Rice community many avenues to report wrongful conduct. Fortunately, so far, we have not received any reports of these incidents on our campus. We remain ever watchful, though, and if we do receive any, we will act swiftly.
We value and practice free expression and believe it is acceptable to disagree and to allow disagreeable opinions, but there is no room to disagree about genocide. It is always wrong and horrific, as are calls for it.
Finally, as noted previously, Rice during this time has developed an enhanced security posture conducive to a welcoming, safe campus environment as part of our commitment to our students.