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Ryder Glickman’s first day as chair of The New School University Student Senate (USS) was an eventful one. His inaugural act was to call a vote on a first-of-its-kind resolution to sanction Hillel at The New School. This vote followed the release of a 38-page report detailing Hillel’s potential violations of international law.

The report, conducted by a student committee, outlines Hillel’s participation in programs with the Israeli military. Before and during Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the campus organization was linked to a volunteer program at Israeli military bases from which attacks on Gaza and Lebanon originated.

Glickman stood in front of the student senate. “I laid out the facts of the report,” he told Truthout. “I tried to keep it brief and towards the end I said: ‘This is one of the most principled acts that you can make while you’re in the Senate. This is much bigger than us. This has the potential to change the student movement in the U.S.’”

With that, the Senate took an anonymous vote and the resolution passed with a majority — designating Hillel at The New School “not in good standing” and ineligible for student funding. The New School Student Senate’s decision signals a possible shift in the strategy of the campus movement for Palestine: Instead of attempting to sway unaccountable boards of directors, some students are finding new ways to exercise the power they hold themselves.

Mopping the Floors of Military Bases

In January, the USS outlined its strategic goals for the year, among them ensuring that all registered student organizations adhere to international law. Glickman, who was at that point a member of the USS but not yet its chair, referenced New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s commitment to international law as an inspiration. “We felt that at a local scale, at a university scale, this is something we can deliver to our students, starting with the allocation of USS fees” he said.

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The USS created a new body — the Registered Student Organization Compliance Committee (RSOCC) — to monitor student groups potentially in breach of administrative and student government policy and restrict student funds if necessary. The RSOCC cited university administrative policy about student organization procedures, which states that “violations of university policy, or federal/state/city law could result in an organization receiving a suspension, probationary status, or immediate revocation of their registration status — pending investigation and deemed responsibility.”

On April 17, following a vote by the University Student Senate, the RSOCC launched an investigation into Hillel at The New School. The findings were stark. Hillel at The New School, a subsidiary of Hillel at Baruch College (itself a part of Hillel International’s campus network), participates in multiple programs in which students volunteer at Israeli military bases. One of these programs is “Hillel on Base.”

Instagram content cross-posted by Hillel at Baruch and Hillel at The New School shows students clad in Israeli military uniforms at military bases performing manual labor, mopping floors, gathering trash, moving supplies, training with military officers, and socializing with soldiers who had recently returned from Gaza. Truthout independently verified that multiple students from The New School have gone through the program.

Another program that Hillel at Baruch and Hillel at The New School collaborate on is Onward Israel, a post-birthright trip during which students have........

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