House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C) is raising pressure on top U.S. universities to cooperate with her committee’s investigation of campus anti-Semitism.
In her initial records request, Ms. Foxx sought all reports since 2021 of anti-Semitic acts or incidents at Harvard, as well as records of investigations and disciplinary actions taken against individuals and organizations for behavior targeting Jews, Israelis, Israel, Zionists, or Zionism. According to Ms. Foxx, Harvard ultimately turned over 24 documents, together totaling just more than 1,000 pages that she said were already in the public domain.
Ms. Foxx said she’s hopeful that Harvard will cooperate with the records requests but said she’s prepared to legally compel them to turn over the documents she’s seeking.
“We need the remaining documents we requested—and we need them in a timely fashion,“ the Republican House chairwoman said. ”We are hoping they will move forward with giving us the documents, without us having to issue a subpoena.”
Ms. Foxx’s initial request also called for Harvard to turn over records of potentially anti-Semitic behavior on various social media platforms involving the Harvard community, including from the campus-wide Sidechat—an application that requires a Harvard email account to access and use.
Foxx Eyes Other Ivy League Schools
Congress began more closely scrutinizing how Harvard and other U.S. colleges handle anti-Semitic incidents after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel by the Hamas terrorist group. The Israeli government responded to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks with an ongoing military campaign throughout the Gaza Strip.The fighting in the Gaza Strip has also pushed the decades-old Israeli–Palestinian conflict to the forefront of public debate. College campuses have become a major venue for this clash of ideas and identities. In the days after the attack, many campus student organizations expressed solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Amid the burgeoning Israeli–Palestinian debate on college campuses, representatives of Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) were called before Ms. Foxx’s committee on Dec. 5, 2023, to explain where they draw the line between free speech, harassment, and dangerous incitement.
When asked whether calls for the genocide of Jews violate their university’s rules on bullying and harassment, then-Harvard President Claudine Gay and then-UPenn President Liz Magill said it would depend on the context of the statement, while MIT President Sally Kornbluth said such statements might be considered harassment “if targeted at individuals, not making public statements.” Ms. Gay and Ms. Magill have since resigned, amid criticism of their responses.
While the Dec. 5, 2023, House hearing focused on Harvard, UPenn, and MIT, Ms. Foxx said she’s looking to expand her investigation and named two more Ivy League schools that may have to answer for their handling of anti-Semitic incidents soon: Columbia University and Cornell University.
“We are going to do an examination of any universities that fail to address anti-Semitism. We are quite well aware of Cornell and Columbia,” Ms. Foxx told CNN on Jan. 28.
“We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the Chairwoman and her colleagues toward our shared goal of combating antisemitism and other forms of hate,” Columbia University spokesperson Samantha Slater told CNN.
NTD reached out to Columbia and Cornell for additional comments but didn’t receive responses from either university by press time.
