Before parents start helping high school seniors apply to college this year, they may want to look at a new report from Alums for Campus Fairness (ACF). The organization recently released its 2025-26 Campus Climate Brief, showing the most concerning and most supportive college campuses for Jewish and pro-Israel students.
The report, which can be found on CampusFairness.org, took into consideration five criteria: incident record, institutional response, anti-Israel organizing, Jewish life on campus, and the legal and structural environment. For instance, the report looked at the documented record of antisemitic incidents and threats affecting Jewish students during the year, like encampment-related disruptions, assaults, and vandalism, and the outcomes of these incidents, whether it was arrests and/or criminal charges. The scale of anti-Israel activism on campus – including disruptions of university operations and BDS resolutions and referenda – along with the strength of Jewish groups on campus like Hillel and Chabad were factored into the study.
“We didn’t rank schools on reputation or rhetoric,” said ACF’s Executive Director Avi Gordon. “We ranked them on how they actually reacted the last time a Jewish student was targeted.”
“We ranked them on how they actually reacted the last time a Jewish student was targeted.” – Avi Gordon
Some of the 10 most concerning campuses include Middlebury College, the New School, Sarah Lawrence College, Oberlin College, and George Mason University, with the CUNY school system and the University of Washington receiving honorable mentions.
The 10 most supportive schools include Tulane University, the University of Florida, the University of Miami, Arizona State University, and the University of Southern California, with honorable mentions for Yeshiva University, Boston University, and Emory University. All in all, there were 14 concerning campuses and 17 strong campuses representing 17 states. Florida had the most supportive schools (three), while California led with four of the most concerning schools.
“The schools that got this right didn’t do anything complicated,” said Gordon. “They wrote clear rules and enforced them from day one, before things escalated. Schools like Tulane, Florida, and Vanderbilt demonstrated swift action when radical students tried to take over their campuses in the wake of October 7th. That decisive response left a lasting impression and has discouraged future incidents.”
The report, which drew from publicly identifiable available and independently verifiable sources, like official university statements, court filings, student government records, and federal and state government actions, goes into detail on each campus and how it earned its placement.
For instance, in May 2026, the Undergraduate Student Senate’s RSO Compliance Committee at the New School voted to suspend Hillel’s funding. The administration rejected the vote, but the report says the “institutional environment students actually live in is set by the student bodies that keep escalating.”
At the University of Miami, the most visible incident of the year took place on January 27, 2026, when a student influencer started an antisemitic verbal altercation with the Students Supporting Israel table at the Spring Involvement Fair. Within minutes, staff intervened, and the student was expelled from the College Republicans chapter that same week. The campus didn’t have any BDS resolutions, Apartheid Week events, or career fair protests either.
Looking forward, parents and students applying for college can study the report and make their decisions – and colleges are going to see the consequences of their actions.
“Alumni have more power here than they think, and families are already voting with their applications,” said Gordon. “Universities can either get ahead of that or find out the hard way.”
