The President and CEO of Hillel International sent Ohio University President Roderick McDavis a letter last week.
The President and CEO of Hillel International sent Ohio University President Roderick McDavis a letter last week saying he "cannot understand" why four Jewish students were arrested at last week's OU Student Senate meeting.
Eric Fingerhut, who was chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents from 2007 to 2011, published the letter he says he sent the letter to McDavis last Thursday on Hillel's website.
"I cannot understand how the university administration could have possibly allowed the university police to arrest these students," Fingerhut wrote. "These students were not a threat to public order or to the public safety. How could the university administration have failed to intervene when these students were taken to the police station by university police and actually booked and charged with criminal conduct?"
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In the letter, Fingerhut said he knew McDavis personally. "I know you as a strong and compassionate leader dedicated to the welfare of the university, and I know Ohio University to be a proud and welcoming place for academic and political discussion," he said.
Fingerhut went onto say that, "These students are owed an apology from the university."
He also voiced his support for Rabbi Danielle Leshaw, the head of OU's Hillel chapter.
His comments come after the four students were arrested — at least one of whom is associated with Hillel — for speaking out against Senate President Megan Marzec's ice bucket challenge two weeks ago, where she poured a bucket of fake blood over her head to protest Israel's involvement in Gaza.
The four students who were arrested are members of Bobcats for Israel, a pro-Israel campus advocacy group, who also spoke out against Marzec at the senate meeting two weeks ago.
The video — which came in response to McDavis issuing Marzec the Ice Bucket Challenge at the end of summer — prompted Marzec's inbox to "overflow" with hate mail and death threats; sparked outrage against Marzec and in support of her right to free speech on social media; and drew international attention to OU's campus.
Multiple online petitions, both for and against Marzec, are gaining signatures online while a petition recently circulated among faculty garnered the signatures of nearly 50 professors.
A OU spokesperson was not immediately available for comment in response to Fingerhut's petition.
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