House Panel Questions More University Presidents on Campus Anti-Semitism
The House Education and Workforce Committee on May 7 pressed the presidents of Haverford College, California Polytechnic State University, and DePaul University on their response to anti-Semitism on their campuses.
During the hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) asked Haverford College President Wendy Raymond what, if any, disciplinary action was taken against a student group that allegedly called for the 'complete dismantling of the apartheid settler colonial state of Israel by all means necessary.'
While Raymond said the alleged statement is 'repugnant' and indefensible, she did not answer as to whether any disciplinary action had been taken against students making such remarks.
'I will not be talking about individual cases here,' she said, before Stefanik interjected with, 'So have there been any disciplinary actions taken by Haverford related to anti-Semitism? Any?'
Raymond said that there has been some disciplinary action taken.
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) asked DePaul University President Robert Manuel about the pro-Palestinian encampment on the quad of the Chicago school. It was one of numerous encampments protesting Israel's military response in Gaza following Hamas's terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
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McClain asked Manuel why DePaul allowed it to stay in place for more than two weeks. McClain cited the university's policy prohibiting people from moving around campus or carrying out violence and endangering the safety of students and faculty. The policy also does not allow for interfering with the business of the school.
'Our immediate instinct was to work with our students,' Manuel said.
McClain pressed Manuel on why DePaul did not immediately clear the encampment. Manuel said that the university worked with the Chicago Police Department to do so. However, McClain criticized Manuel for taking six days to coordinate with the police department a plan to remove the encampment. Manuel said it was unacceptable that it took that long.
McClain also repeatedly asked Manuel whether there were consequences for administrators who allowed the encampment to remain. Manuel did not directly answer the question and said that the university had reviewed the incident.
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) targeted the Trump administration during the hearing, noting that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said before his current role that COVID-19 was ethnically targeted and that Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese were the ethnicities most immune to COVID-19.
Casar also said that Trump pardoned a rioter who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol who allegedly 'praised Hitler and encouraged more killing of Jewish people.'
The hearing was the latest that the House Education and Workforce Committee has held with university presidents over campus anti-Semitism. It has conducted hearings with the presidents of Harvard, MIT, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, and Rutgers, all of whom have since stepped down except for MIT President Sally Kornbluth.
The Trump administration has taken a hardline stance against institutions of higher education that it says have not done enough or failed to respond to anti-Semitism on their campuses.
This has included withholding federal funding from Columbia and Harvard, the latter of which will also lose its tax-exempt status, Trump announced this past week.
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