Dear Seattle Community,

Last night’s occupation and vandalism of the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building at the University of Washington campus was appalling but, sadly, not shocking after the last year and a half on so many university campuses. The images of masked individuals destroying University property and starting a dumpster fire were deeply disturbing.

We welcome the actions of the University of Washington’s leadership in partnership with law enforcement to remove the demonstrators within hours of the action starting and the unequivocal statement from UW leadership calling the occupation “violent and illegal”.

There is power in naming. We applaud that a University spokesperson called the statement from one of the groups behind last night’s vandalism what it was—antisemitic. This is welcomed, as are President Ana Mari Cauce’s words that the UW, “will not be intimidated by this sort of horrific and destructive behavior and will not engage in dialogue with any group using or condoning such destructive tactics.” We hope next steps will include holding those responsible, after appropriate due process, for last night’s illegal actions and destruction.

Upholding rules and enforcing laws when violence is perpetrated is a critical step for the UW in living up to the commitments it made last year to address antisemitism on campus. We appreciate the swift action last night to do exactly that.

L’shalom,