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Hillel International Campus Climate Review

Group of college students entering the university building together.
Understanding institutional climates for Jewish college students
  • Client
    Hillel International
  • Dates
    Hillel International's Campus Climate Initiative Institutional Cohorts:
    Cohort 2: 2021-2022
    Cohort 3: 2022-2023
    Cohort 4: 2023-2024
    Cohort 5: 2024-2025

Problem

Hillel International wants to understand institutional climates for Jewish students. 

According to a 2023 survey from the Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Antisemitism Research (CAR), Hillel International, and College Pulse, who conducted a surveys of American college students before and after the attacks on October 7, 2023, 73% of Jewish students in the U.S. reported experiencing or witnessing some form of antisemitism since the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year alone, and 44% of non-Jewish students reported witnessing some form of antisemitism during that same period. Hillel International’s Campus Climate Initiative (CCI) helps higher education institutions across the United States foster institutional contexts where Jewish students feel comfortable expressing their identity and values free of antisemitism, harassment, and marginalization. Hillel International’s CCI collaborates with institutions across the U.S., their administrators, and local Hillels to build awareness, allyship, and action around antisemitism, as part of a broader effort to address hate and bias on campus. To inform those efforts, institutions’ CCI engagement includes a comprehensive campus climate assessment component called the Campus Climate Review (CCR), for which NORC at the University of Chicago conducts data collection, analysis, and reporting.

Solution

Hillel International partnered with NORC to collect and analyze data. 

Hillel International contracted NORC at the University of Chicago to conduct the Campus Climate Review (CCR) at participating colleges and universities across the U.S. during the 2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024, and 2024-2025 academic years. To date, NORC has worked with more than 50 U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities to assess campus climates by examining campus-specific secondary data, including campus policies, procedures, and infrastructure. NORC also gathers and evaluates primary data through key stakeholder surveys and focus groups. Used repeatedly over time, this assessment model captures incremental change and reveals effective methods for enhancing policies, programs, and practices to improve institutional climates for Jewish students.

Result

Institutions can make data-informed changes or improvements to support  Jewish college students.  

In collaboration with Hillel International’s Campus Climate Initiative (CCI), NORC is providing each institution engaged in the CCI program with a comprehensive, integrated summary of assessment findings that include focus group insights as well as institutional policies, practices, and infrastructure.

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