“What I really felt was most disturbing as a Jewish president, but also somebody who cares personally a lot about the issues that were being discussed, is the level of ignorance among people on all sides of this issue,” he said.

Garber said that “a great deal” of what had initially been labeled antisemitism was ultimately anti-Israeli bias, which he called “insidious and maybe more corrosive of University life.”

Even so, he said the University has made faster-than-expected progress in improving campus climate.

“I thought it would take three to five years to see progress,” he said. “In fact, we saw progress within a year.”