‘Some of the worst cases of antisemitic assaults … have occurred at Columbia University,’ Virginia Foxx says
The president and board co-chairs of Columbia University will appear before Congress next month to discuss their response to rising campus anti-Semitism, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce announced.
“Some of the worst cases of antisemitic assaults, harassment, and vandalism on campus have occurred at Columbia University,” the committee’s chairwoman, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), said in a Monday statement.
“Due to the severe and pervasive nature of these cases, and the Columbia administration’s failure to enforce its own policies to protect Jewish students, the Committee must hear from Columbia’s leadership in person to learn how the school is addressing antisemitism on its campus.”
The announcement comes roughly one month after Foxx sent a letter to Columbia president Minouche Shafik and board co-chairs David Greenwald and Claire Shipman requesting documents on the school’s “failure to protect Jewish students, faculty, and staff.” All three officials will testify before the committee on April 17.
A similar hearing in December contributed to the ouster of two former Ivy League university presidents, Harvard University’s Claudine Gay and the University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill.
During that hearing, Gay and Magill said calls for “intifada” against Jews may not violate their schools’ rules. Both institutions faced intense criticism from prominent alumni and donors as a result, with one Penn donor withdrawing a $100 million gift from the school.
Magill resigned just days after the Dec. 5 hearing, while Gay resigned on Jan. 2. In addition to her disastrous congressional testimony, Gay faced mounting allegations of plagiarism.
