Despite the University of Florida (UF)’s strong administrative support for Zionist students post-Oct. 7, the concerns highlighted in a recent American Jewish Committee (AJC) report — finding that nearly one-third of American Jewish college students have encountered faculty-promoted antisemitism — remain relevant on campus.

Malini Johar Schueller, a professor in UF’s English department, is the faculty adviser for the school’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and, more recently, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Schueller regularly uses her academic position to spread her anti-Israel ideology, fostering and fueling a hostile atmosphere on campus.

Schueller is listed as the #1395 endorser of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel Organizing Collective and the #2259 signer of the only publicly-made signed statement of the Scholars Against the War on Palestine. She is also a member of Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine at UF.

A little over a month after the Oct. 7 massacre carried out by Palestinian terrorists, Schueller changed her cover photo on Facebook from a photo of her and her husband to the Palestinian flag. In December 2023, she shared a photo of a bus advertisement originally posted by Refaat Alareer in 2021 reading “NORMAL PEOPLE BOYCOTT ISRAEL.” The caption claimed that “you do not have to be a Muslim or Arab to support Palestine, you just need not be an asshole,” to which she responded, “So true.”

A few months later, Schueller shared sentiments amidst the rise of encampments that swept the nation in late April 2024, hoping that UF faculty would follow in the footsteps of NYU faculty who “protected” protesters from arrest threats.

Schueller’s activism escalated beyond merely pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel sentiments and made statements supporting Palestinian “resistance” — a term that has been often used by Palestinians themselves to justify violence against Israelis and Jews.

For example, on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, Schueller proclaimed: “Resistance is justified when people are occupied,” a commonly used chant to excuse violence against Israelis and Jews, according to CAMERA’s Dictionary of Hamas Supporters’ Chants and Slogans.

Schueller’s Orlando Sentinel piece, “False anti-Semitism charges blind us to real bigotry,” accuses Israel of being a settler-colonial and apartheid state, claims disputed by groups like the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee — as well as by many non-Jewish organizations and scholars. She further asserts that accusations of antisemitism wrongly portray all Jews as monolithic supporters of Israel, but a Pew Research Center report contradicts her claim, showing that most Jewish people oppose BDS, highlighting her tendency to amplify minority viewpoints at the expense of the majority.

As an educator, Schueller is positioned to teach the next generation of leaders, yet she openly boasts of using her academic position to advance her unacademic activism. Her teaching methods are outlined in her 2024 research article titled “Teaching Palestine: Challenges of Identification and Alliance.” In it, she advocates for an “activist reading” of Palestinian literature. She pushes students to see Palestinians through a “radical alterity” framework. She also uses and cites the work of authors, such as Susan Abulhawa, who reject the Jewish indigenous connection to the land of Israel and laud Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

Schueller’s courses include Introduction to Postcolonial Theory and Comparative Settler Colonialisms. Required readings are heavily one-sided, relying on activists and ideologues such as Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, and Abuhawa. Among the other readings is a text by Ghassan Kanafani, a former senior member of the US-designated Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine.

The student groups she advises, UF Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), champion the same anti-Zionist rhetoric she promotes.

UF SJP, for example, regularly posts similarly ideological messaging that crosses into antisemitic conspiracy theorizing, such as depicting “Zionist colonialism” as a profit-making conspiracy. They have erected displays repeating the antisemitic “Zionism is racism” canard, famously rejected by the United States and rescinded by the United Nations. UF SJP is intolerant of opposing viewpoints and has led harassment campaigns to shut down events featuring Israeli speakers.

Both the state government and university administration have been steadfast on their policies defending Jewish students and academic freedom. And as the Fall 2024 semester approached, Ray Rodrigues, the chancellor of the state university system, directed a state-mandated course syllabi evaluation for courses related to antisemitism for Florida’s 12 public universities.

But courses like Schueller’s fell through the cracks because they lacked specified keywords.

UF must take decisive action to continue to protect academic integrity and ensure that its classrooms remain spaces for genuine intellectual inquiry, not platforms for political indoctrination. Schueller’s teaching and activism may have violated UF’s Academic Freedom and Responsibility regulation. The university must conduct a thorough review of her course materials to ensure academia is disparate from activism. By demanding transparency, upholding academic standards, and rejecting the misuse of university resources for activism, UF can reaffirm its commitment to fostering a campus where all students can engage in open, respectful discourse without fear of discrimination.

Molly Seghi is a sophomore journalism student at the University of Florida. She is also the 2024-2025 CAMERA on Campus fellow.