The presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are facing questions from Congress Tuesday about their responses to alleged incidents of antisemitism on their campuses in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
“Today, each of you will have a chance to answer to and atone for the many specific instances of vitriolic, hate-filled antisemitism on your respective campuses that have denied students the safe learning environment they are due,” Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx said.
“As you confront our questions in this hearing, remember that you are not speaking to us, but to the students on your campus who have been threatened and assaulted and who look to you to protect them,” she said.
As chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Foxx invited Harvard president Claudine Gay, Penn president Liz Magill and MIT president Sally Kornbluth to testify.
“After the events of the past two months, it is clear that rabid antisemitism and the university are two ideas that cannot be cleaved from one another,” Foxx said.
Since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, the Department of Education has opened an unprecedented number of investigations into alleged incidents of hate on college campuses.
Both Harvard and Penn, along with six other colleges and four K-12 school districts, are under investigation.
The investigations were launched under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which says universities and K-12 schools have a responsibility to provide all students with an environment free from discrimination.
At the conclusion of the investigations, the Department of Education will make recommendations to the schools. The schools risk losing federal funding if they don’t comply.
College campuses across the country have seen a rise in tension over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. In recent weeks, there have been hundreds of protests and counterprotests on college campuses, with some of them turning violent.
The faces and names of some students allegedly linked to anti-Israel statements were displayed on mobile billboards near the campuses of both Harvard and Columbia.
Additionally, a Cornell University student was federally charged in connection with a series of online posts threatening to kill and harm Jewish students, and Penn recently alerted the FBI to a series of threatening, antisemitic emails sent to the Ivy League school’s staff.
“Institutional antisemitism and hate are among the poisoned fruits of your institutions’ cultures. The buck for what has happened must stop on the president’s desk, along with the responsibility for making never again true on campus,” Foxx said.
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