Four University of Rochester students are facing felony charges in connection with the hundreds of allegedly antisemitic “Wanted” posters that were posted around campus.
Chief Quchee Collins of the university’s public safety department made the announcement Tuesday afternoon in an email sent to UR students and employees.
“While I regret that this deeply disturbing incident took place on our campus, I am incredibly satisfied that through a thorough investigation we were able to identify those who are allegedly responsible and hold them accountable for the deliberate and deplorable actions targeted toward members of our university community, including members of our Jewish population,” Collins wrote.
The students are being arrested on charges of felony criminal mischief, officials said.
The posters drew widespread condemnation including from U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who spoke on the issue on the floor of the Senate last week. But the local activist group, Rochester Committee to End Apartheid, called the university's response "excessive" and "designed to intimidate and silence student and community advocacy."
In an Instagram post the group described the posters as bringing attention to "individuals and administrators with institutional ties to Israel — whose complicity sustains apartheid — or that have suppressed Palestinian voices."
Collins wrote that while the university took criminal not just disciplinary action, authorities do not think the students’ actions — though targeted and biased — meet the legal threshold of a hate crime.
A fifth person remains under investigation.
