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House Committee on Education and the Workforce Releases Antisemitism Report

  • Virginia Foxx
Today, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce released its report “Antisemitism On College Campuses Exposed,” highlighting how there has been a systematic failure by universities and their leaders to implement and uphold policies to protect Jewish students, student organizations, and faculty members. The report reveals an utter failure by cowardice administrators to combat antisemitism and calls for a reassessment of federal support for postsecondary institutions that fail to protect its Jewish community. 
 
MAKE NO MISTAKE: House Republicans will always stand against antisemitism and fight to protect Jewish students on American college campuses.
 
KEY FINDINGS (Courtesy of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce)
  • Students who established unlawful antisemitic encampments—which violated university policies and created unsafe and hostile learning environments—were given shocking concessions. Universities’ dereliction of leadership and failure to enforce their rules put students and personnel at risk.
    • Northwestern put radical anti-Israel faculty in charge of negotiations with the encampment
    • Northwestern’s provost shockingly approved of a proposal to boycott Sabra hummus
    • Northwestern entertained demands to hire an “anti-Zionist” rabbi and Northwestern President Michael Schill may have misled Congress in testimony regarding the matter
    • Columbia’s leaders offered greater concessions to encampment organizers than they publicly acknowledged
    • UCLA officials stood by and failed to act as the illegal encampment violated Jewish students’ civil rights and placed the campus at risk 
  • So-called university leaders intentionally declined to express support for campus Jewish communities. Instead of explicitly condemning antisemitic harassment, universities equivocated out of concern of offending antisemitic students and faculty who rallied in support of foreign terrorist organizations.
    • Harvard leaders’ failure to condemn Hamas’ attack in their widely criticized October 9 statement was an intentional decision
    • Harvard President Claudine Gay and then-Provost Alan Garber asked Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker not to label the slogan “From the River to the Sea” antisemitic, with Gay fearing doing so would create expectations Harvard would have to impose discipline
    • The Columbia administration failed to correct false narratives of a “chemical attack” that were used to vilify Jewish students, but imposed disproportionate discipline on the Jewish students involved
  • Universities utterly failed to impose meaningful discipline for antisemitic behavior that violated school rules and the law. In some cases, radical faculty successfully thwarted meaningful discipline.
    • Universities failed to enforce their rules and hold students accountable for antisemitic conduct violations
    • Columbia’s University Senate obstructed plans to discipline students involved in the takeover of Hamilton Hall
    • Harvard’s faculty intervened to prevent meaningful discipline toward antisemitic conduct violations on numerous occasions
    • Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker acknowledged that the university’s disciplinary boards’ enforcement of the rules is “uneven” and called this “unacceptable”
  • So-called university leaders expressed hostility to congressional oversight and criticism of their record. The antisemitism engulfing campuses was treated as a public-relations issue and not a serious problem demanding action.
    • Harvard president Claudine Gay disparaged Rep. Elise Stefanik’s character to the university’s Board of Overseers
    • Columbia’s leaders expressed contempt for Congressional oversight of campus antisemitism
    • Penn’s leaders suggested politicians calling for President Magill’s resignation were “easily purchased” and sought to orchestrate negative media coverage of Members of Congress who scrutinized the University 
BOTTOM LINE: The Committee’s investigation not only revealed a systemic failure by university leaders to enforce and apply existing policies to antisemitic students, student organizations, and faculty members, but also an unwillingness to combat antisemitism in general. 
 
The Committee’s findings indicate the need for a more fundamental reassessment of federal support for postsecondary institutions that have failed to meet their obligations to protect Jewish students, faculty, and staff, and that have failed to maintain a safe and uninterrupted learning environment for all students.
 
Click HERE for the full report (Courtesy of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce