Republicans on the House Education Committee on Thursday published its report on the rise of antisemitism on college campuses in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack.
The committee spent nearly a year investigating the surge in protests and antisemitic attacks on Jewish students and faculty. The investigation included Congressional testimony from school officials, and examined more than 400,000 documents from 11 schools.
The investigation resulted in four main conclusions: campuses purposely withheld support from Jewish students, the schools made serious concessions to the protesters, the universities did not adequately punish students that engaged in antisemitic behavior, and school officials were hostile to the congressional investigation.
“For over a year, the American people have watched antisemitic mobs rule over so-called elite universities, but what was happening behind the scenes is arguably worse," committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx said in a statement. "While Jewish students displayed incredible courage and a refusal to cave to the harassment, university administrators, faculty, and staff were cowards who fully capitulated to the mob and failed the students they were supposed to serve."
The report highlighted Columbia University's concessions, which included a thorough review of divestments from certain companies, and a possible partnership with a Palestinian university that Hamas was reportedly active on. Northwestern University also considered taking Sabra hummus off the campus, at protesters' request.
Lawmakers also chided officials for not adequately supporting Jewish students after Harvard refused to condemn a letter that blamed Israel for the attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Harvard's former President Claudine Gay also asked the school not to label a pro-Palestine chant "from the river to the sea” as antisemitic to avoid punishing those who chant it.
“The Committee’s investigation found that in multiple cases, these failures came not from mere ignorance or lack of forethought, but rather from intentional decisions by university leaders not to provide their campuses’ Jewish communities the necessary support needed to ensure they felt safe to live on campus or attend classes,” the report detailed.
The lawmakers additionally slammed schools for not punishing the students who did unlawfully protest, including those who shut down schools. Columbia, which was a focal point of the antisemitic protests, did not punish students who illegally occupied Hamilton Hall.
The report concluded that the schools likely violated Title VI and pushed the U.S. Department of Education to hold the institutions accountable.
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