The Council on American Islamic Relations’ 2025 Hostile Campus Ratings Report claims to measure whether Muslim students are safe and treated fairly on American campuses. Instead, it demonizes universities for condemning antisemitism and addressing violent protests on campus.
The University of Washington (UW), which allowed a violent Gaza encampment to take over the Quad, caved to radical organizers’ demands, and took almost no consequential action against Antifa and pro-Hamas activists that caused over $1 million in damage, was rated a “Hostile Campus” for condemning the vandalism and having the culprits arrested.
Rather than treat that destruction as criminal vandalism, CAIR’s framework treats the university’s response as a civil-rights liability.
CAIR’s grading formula starts every school at 100 points. Points are then deducted across four equal categories: institutional policies; student experience and campus climate; civil-rights and legal action; and free speech and political expression. A score of 90 percent or above earns “Unhostile.” Scores between 70 and 89 percent are labeled “Under Watch.” Anything 69 percent or below is deemed a “Hostile Campus.”
UW ultimately received a score of 40 percent. After the engineering building occupation, UW officials publicly condemned the destruction, triggered a five-point deduction, and defended calling law enforcement. Arrests automatically cost ten points. During the engineering building occupation, police cleared the building and made arrests.
UW was also penalized for making policy changes without sufficient consultation with student or faculty bodies.
In the aftermath of disruptive encampments and building occupations nationwide, many universities updated protest rules, clarified time-place-manner restrictions, and tightened enforcement policies. UW’s actions in this area resulted in another deduction under CAIR’s “Institutional Policies” category.
Sanctions or suspensions trigger another ten-point deduction. Since UW pursued disciplinary measures against students involved in the occupation and vandalism, the score was lowered further.
Schools can lose points for adopting mainstream antisemitism definitions, and for issuing statements CAIR deems insufficiently “balanced.”
No school in the report qualified as “Unhostile.” The average score was below 40 percent. Several high-profile universities received single-digit or low double-digit scores, including many that allowed their campus to be taken over by radicals supporting Islamic terror.
CAIR has been linked to terror groups and identified by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General as an unindicted co-conspirator in the United States v. Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case, the largest terrorism financing trial in US history, as part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, an entity formed to support Hamas in the US.
CAIR’s national executive director and co-founder, Nihad Awad, said he was “happy to see” Palestinian terrorists “breaking the siege,” after Hamas’ October 7th massacre of Israeli civilians that left 1,200 dead and over 250 taken hostage. Following the comments, the Biden administration removed CAIR from its White House task force on antisemitism.
