Illustrative Students in class. Photo: Tulane Public Relations/Wikimedia Commons.

Tulane University will soon include antisemitism training in its orientation program for freshman students, a university spokesman confirmed to The Algemeiner on Thursday.

“Included in this new orientation model will be programming that addresses all forms of bias and hate, including he antisemitism,” Assistant Vice President for Communications Michael Strecker said. “We appreciate the community’s interest in this topic and have conveyed our progress and commitment to this issue to interested parties.”

Tulane announced the news after Jewish students circulated a petition calling for the university’s to add a unit on antisemitism to the “Newcomb-Tulane College First Year Experience,” a three day program that takes place every August.

Ben Bernstein, a senior, led the effort and pitched the idea to the administration before knowing that a revamping of the program was already in progress. In a statement to The Tulane Hullabaloo, a campus newspaper, he urged Tulane, where 40 percent of students are Jewish, to “be a part of ending antisemitism.”

“To the administrators at Tulane who have generously given their time to meet with me and consider this issue, thank you,” Bernstein told the Hullabaloo. “We urge you to be trailblazers once again and address this rampart form of discrimination by including antisemitism awareness training in freshman orientation.”

So far, the Black Student Union (BSU), Multicultural Council, and Gender and Sexuality Advisory Council have backed the proposal, which stands out as an example of progressive campus groups allying with Jewish students for a common cause.

“They have my full support,” Raymell Green told the Hullabaloo, president of BSU, adding that Bernstein’s work is “astounding.”

The paper added that Bernstein is motivated by rising antisemitism on US college campuses, an issue that emerged on campus when a student, who has since withdrawn from the university, published an op-ed at College Dissident arguing that “Ye [Kanye West] did nothing wrong.”

The administration condemned the student’s ideas while affirming its commitment to free expression.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.