The struggle is real for students heading back to college or starting for the first time, and potentially some extra anxiety for many Jewish students.

"I feel like coming back after a long break is never easy for anyone, but I feel like having this hanging over our head and this sense of unwelcoming atmosphere and environment,” said U of R student, Gilad. “It almost adds a layer of anxiety.”

"I kind of came in with a little bit of anticipation hoping that it would be a lot better than last year, but mentally and emotional preparing myself for a repeat of what to me feels like blatant antisemitism on this campus," said U of R student, Edee.

Gilad and Edee, both juniors at the University of Rochester, say they are staying positive on this first week of classes.

There were numerous pro-Palestinian protests on the U of R campus last school year.

The students say they faced antisemitic acts and comments regularly, and now on the first day of classes, say there are already signs the messages are returning.

"It really makes me think that if all that happened last year would repeat again, would Jewish students feel comfortable? Would Israeli students feel safe? I don't know, right? I don't have the ability to speak for everyone,” said Gilad. “I know for myself, coming back there was a sense of anxiety, a little bit of dread. Like am I going to have to deal with the same things I dealt with last year?"

"Wanting to be hopeful and positive and hope that things are going to be a lot better, but preparing myself for not the worst, but for it to be not be great and super comfortable this year on this campus," said Edee. "But again, positive attitude, preparing for the worse." 

Gilad and Edee prefer we only use their first names for safety reasons.

As students move onto campuses across New York state, Jewish organizations are calling for the tightening of safety and security measures on colleges campuses everywhere.

SUNY Chancellor John King, while at the New York State Fair, weighed in.

“Our top priority answer is to make sure that our students are safe [and] that our communities are places where we can have respectful disagreement and learn it,” he said. “And so we've been focused on those goals. We've done a lot of preparation with our campus teams to make sure that they're clearly communicating to students our content, neutral time, place and manner restrictions, where protests can happen, how they should proceed [and] how we make sure that they're safe.” 

We are waiting to hear from the administration to find out if there are any changes to security measures at the U of R.

Gilad and Edee say they’re concerned if the university will enforce its own rules.