The University of Minnesota received a B from the ADL in its annual Campus Antisemitism Report, up from a C last year.
The report graded the school as being above expectations of publicly disclosed administrative actions, having excellent Jewish life on campus, while rating a “medium” on campus conduct and climate concerns. The most concerning part of that was the level of hostile anti-Zionist student groups and faculty and staff activities.
“Universities that have taken a comprehensive approach – reviewing policies, clarifying expectations, and strengthening enforcement – are seeing meaningful progress,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “Some of the strongest gains are coming from institutions that have engaged deeply with our recommendations and translated them into lasting institutional practice, rather than symbolic commitments.”
The only 2025 incident listed in the report’s “What’s Happening on Campus?” section was from October of last year, when an anti-Israel rally organized by groups including Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Students for a Democratic Society, protesters displayed signs that read “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a slogan commonly used to call for an end to the Jewish state.
Carleton College in Northfield was also graded a B this year, up from a D in 2025. The school was rated a “meets expectations” for publicly disclosed administrative actions, excellent Jewish life on campus, and low-to-none campus conduct or climate concerns.
“What’s happening in Minnesota is a roadmap for the rest of the country,” said Rebecca Weininger, the ADL Midwest Regional director. “What Minnesota is doing on campuses shows what happens when you protect marginalized communities on campus and the effect that it has.”
Grades improving nationwide
The 2026 Report Card assessed 150 colleges and universities across 32 criteria in three areas: administrative policies, Jewish life on campus, campus conduct and climate concerns. Schools receiving A’s and B’s has increased substantially since last year, up to 58 percent this year from 41 percent in 2025. Only 23.5 percent reached those grades in 2023.
Overall, this year’s grading distribution shows improvement across higher education, with 23 institutions earning A’s, 64 earning B’s, 51 earning C’s, 8 earning D’s, and 4 receiving F grades – signaling what the ADL calls “a continued upward trend alongside meaningful variation in performance.”
“We said all along that keeping students safe on campus was a matter of will, not a matter of money,” said Shira Goodman, the ADL’s vice president of advocacy and head of the Ronald Birnbaum Center to Combat Antisemitism in Education on a recent episode of the Jewfolk Podcast “The Kibbitz.” “It wasn’t rocket science, and that has been borne out.”
Listen to “Jewish Life On Campus (w/Shira Goodman from the ADL)” on Spreaker.
For families who are currently looking at schools, Goodman said that a school having a low grade doesn’t mean it’s not the right one.
“As a parent and as someone who works at the ADL, I…wouldn’t cross F and D schools off a list to look at for my kid,” she said. “Our report card is one tool among many that parents and families should use. It tells you what’s going on on campus. It gives you a little bit of a historical perspective. It does not purport to represent how every Jewish student is feeling on campus.
Goodman said the inclusion of the section on Jewish life on campus helps to elevate places that are providing support for the Jewish community on campus.
“There are places on campus that are providing tremendous support for our students, like Hillel, Chabad, Jewish Greek life, Jewish professors, where they can come and they can get the support they need,” she said. “And what we’ve seen is that many of them have been leaders on their campuses.”
Weininger credits the work that Hillel and Chabad are doing in advocating for Jewish students, with UMN administrators listening.
“It’s coming to the table and listening, and having hard conversations about the lived experiences of Jews on campus,” she said. “These two (administrations) decided to care. When you do that, you can have structural improvement from the bottom of the methodical scale to a B, which is a shining example that, with a roadmap, it can get better. These campuses decided to do that.”
Reasons for improvement
The University of Minnesota’s grade this year was more straightforward than the 2025 edition of the report. In the initial 2025 grading, the University of Minnesota received an F, due to the school not responding to the survey when it was sent out in November 2024. Then-ADL Midwest Director David Goldenberg had several conversations with school President Rebecca Cunningham to learn about what the school had been doing to combat what had been perceived as a campus hostile to the Jewish community.
As part of the effort to improve the grade, the U updated its Guiding Principles of the Student Conduct Code to include banning harassment “based on actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, and citizenship or residency in any country, including Israel and the Arab world countries. This includes, for example, antisemitic and Islamophobic discrimination or harassment. The school also joined the Hillel Campus Climate Initiative, which was one of the key requests made by Jewish student leaders of the previous school president during the Spring 2024 pro-Palestinian encampment that took over Northrop Mall, and pro-Hamas graffiti and flags were displayed on campus.
This year’s report card cited the University’s Bias Response and Referral Network (BRRN), which responds to reports of antisemitism and publishes annual reports that include information about bias incidents on campus. The University also has several other committees that work on improving the campus climate and advancing educational opportunities, including the University of Minnesota-Duluth Baeumler-Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration Committee.
The University is planning to launch a mandatory, standalone course on Addressing Antisemitism – required for all students, staff, and faculty – in 2026. To facilitate civil discourse on campus, the University has partnered with Essential Partners and launched a new strategic roadmap, Elevate Extraordinary 2030. This roadmap deepens the University’s commitment to ensuring that people from all backgrounds experience rich academic experiences and a genuine sense of belonging. The University is also offering relevant programming through the Bridging Beliefs Project, the Constructive Dialogue Initiative and the Duluth Campus Constructive Dialogue Work Group.
Weininger said that continuing a strong relationship with the University of Minnesota, in particular, is a year-round effort.
“We have a vision into the partnership and hard conversations they are having on campus and the way they are responding to incidents,” she said. “The grades aren’t a surprise to me, and they shouldn’t be to the school’s either.“
Cunningham said at a March 2025 kickoff event for the school’s participation in the CCI that none of the challenges that she faces as a university president is greater than making sure students in the University of Minnesota system feel safe.
“We have an inclusive community, and we are proud of that community, and I am here to try to improve that and foster that welcoming community for all,” Cunningham said. “[The Jewish] community has specific challenges in this time that we are in. Antisemitism is real, antisemitism is spiky, and we have more than ever to do to educate peers in our community and your peers as students in what vibrant Jewish life looks like and how that plays out for you and your daily world. And why it’s important to you and how it is an important part of our community for people to be able to live that fully and openly and respectfully.”
Thanks for this report on the U of M!