The NYPD illegally monitored Muslim student associations in the Northeast US, citing a list of 12 people arrested or convicted on terrorism charges in the United States and abroad who had once been members of Muslim student associations. In rationalizing their monitoring activities, the NYPD noted they followed the same rules as the FBI, but several civil rights organizations argued that they engaged in unconstitutional racial and religious profiling and spying without evidence against individuals. The universities involved in the student monitoring included Yale; Columbia; the University of Pennsylvania; Syracuse; New York University; Clarkson University; the Newark and New Brunswick campuses of Rutgers; the State University of New York campuses in Buffalo, Albany, Stony Brook and Potsdam; Queens College; Baruch College; Brooklyn College and La Guardia Community College.