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CASE STUDY
Disparate Treatment of Jewish Candidates for Student Government
In 2015 , a second-year economics major at UCLA applied to join the student government ’ s Judicial Board . After her interview , members of the student council spent 40 minutes debating whether the applicant could be trusted to be unbiased in light of her affiliation with Jewish organizations , including her sorority and Hillel . The council initially voted to reject the applicant , but after a faculty advisor urged the council to reconsider , arguing that belonging to Jewish organizations did not create a conflict of interest , the council reversed course and accepted her for the position . After a public outcry , the student council members who had initially opposed the Jewish student apologized , and the university ’ s chancellor issued a statement emphasizing that “ to assume that every member of a group can ’ t be impartial or is motivated by hatred is intellectually and morally unacceptable ,” and calling the incident a “ teaching moment .”