Three column presidents apologized for not acting more aggressively to limit anti -Semitism in their campuses during the House Committee on Wednesday, to what Republicans priced as an attempt to examine the colleges beyond Ivy.
“I am sorry that my actions and my leadership disappoint you,” said Wendy Raymond, president of the Haverford College, a Quaker college outside Philadelphia, said she would like her Jewish students to know. “I’m committed to doing this right.”
The Company Committee and the Labor have carried out several hearing with schools from October 7, 2023, Hamas’ attack on Israel and the Gaza war that followed. In many ways, the hearing reacted the first and dramatic of them in December 2023, which led to the resignations of the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the democratic majority threatened to withhold federal funding from non -cooperative schools. The democratic minority accused the Republicans of taking on anti -Semitism in their own party, while using it as a political weapon against others. And university leaders have tried to walk a fine line between the appearance of care and not compete with the committee, though they do not undermine academic freedom.
But it was also a very different time for higher education and its relationship with the federal government.
The hearing mainly examined events a year ago, when campuses across the country ran from protest camps and mass arrests. The war is ongoing, but the protests have faded to a great extent, with some notable exceptions.
A protest at the University of Washington drew wide attention this week, but the university quickly cleared the protesters to praise the government. And in Columbia on Wednesday, dozens of pre-Palestinian protesters, wearing masks and Kaffiyehs, occupied the main room of the Butler Library.
In the meantime, the democratic attack on universities has only intensified.
Trump’s administration has opened research at dozens of universities on the categories of anti -Semitism and has been stripped of hundreds of millions of dollars from others who say they have not done enough to respond to issues raised by protests, most of them in democratic states. President Trump and his officials were specifically focused on Ivy League schools.
Congress’s hearing on Wednesday was entitled “Beyond the Ivies”. “We are trying to emphasize that this is a problem that affects schools across America, not just the Ivy League,” said Audra McGgeorge, a spokesman for the Commission.
The listening focused on schools receiving degrees F from the union against defamation. This time, the three presidents of the Haverford, Depaul University in Chicago and the Polytechnic University of California at San Luis Obispo, knew what questions they needed to expect and were largely overwhelmed. (Cal Poly recently increased its rank to D.)
However, after refusing to provide statistics on disciplinary cases against protesters, Haverford President Dr. Raymond came for a particularly disputed challenge by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, New York Democratic. Her harsh interrogations were largely responsible for the damage that helped lead to other university presidents to resign.
Mrs Stefanik questioned Dr. Raymond for a group of students who called for the disassembly of the Israeli state “by all the necessary means”, asking: “What does” all the necessary “mean to you?”
“The citing such terminology is resistant to what it may mean,” Dr. Raymond replied, stressing the word “can”.
“Does this depend on the frame?” Ms Stefanik interrupted.
Dr. Raymond had been warned by the experiences of Harvard and Penn presidents. Both gave non -binding answers to questions about whether students who demanded the genocide of the Jews would be disciplined. Both stated that this would depend on the context.
Dr. Raymond avoided the “framework” question, saying he would not talk about individual cases.
Threatened by Ms Stefanik: “Many people sat in this position that are no longer in place as presidents of universities for their failure to answer simple questions.”
Half a year since the December 2023 hearing, many university leaders seemed to be careful in the complaints of students, teachers and legislators and the fate of their peers.
Many schools have tightened the rules related to protests, the locked gates of campus to foreigners and issue tougher punishments for participants. Movements can help explain why protests were less frequent and widely used this spring. Many universities have also banned or suspended the most militant groups of pre-Palestinian activists.
“Both as president of the university and as a human being, this is a matter I take very seriously,” said Jeffrey D. Armstrong, president of Cal Poly, to the Commission. “We need to do better.”
He has made plans, such as the origin of a chair in Jewish studies and the establishment of a work group to increase the awareness of anti -Semitism.
On Wednesday, Republicans followed what has become a favored Playbook, pressing schools to respond to their complaints threatening to withhold federal funding.
Ryan Mackenzie, a Republican of Pennsylvania, asked Dr. Raymond to gather information on the punishment of students and teachers in the Haverford and hand it over to the committee or is in danger of losing federal funding.
“You are receiving federal money. Isn’t it?” He said.
“We do, in a wonderful collaboration with the federal government,” Dr. Raymond replied.
“Well, this partnership may be at risk,” Mr Mackenzie said.
When her turn to challenge the presidents, the representative Suzanne Bonamici, Democrat of Oregon, rejected the hearing as a performance.
Ms Bonamici said that as a Jewish synagogue, “I can no longer pretend that this is a good belief effort to eliminate anti -Semitism, especially when Trump’s administration and the majority party regularly undermine Jewish values.”
David Cole, a former National Legal Director of the US Union of Civil Liberty, has deposited with the presidents. Compared the committee’s activities with the communist hunt of the 1950s. “It is not an attempt to find out what happened, but an attempt to cool a protected speech,” he said.
Mr Cole also said that Trump’s administration had reported the government’s ability to investigate discrimination complaints by reducing civil rights staff for civil rights.
However, Trump’s administration has promised more than 60 surveys in schools on complaints that allowed anti -Semitism to violate their campuses.
On Wednesday night, the University of Washington said it was notified that a federal work group for the fight against anti -Semitism, formed by President Trump, began a review of federal grants and university contracts. The review came after the protesters occupied a engineer building for several hours on Monday, damaging the building and setting fires outside the university. Police arrested 34 people, including 21 students, who have been suspended and banned by the campus, the university said.
During its most recent use, about 18 % of the university’s revenue came from grants and contracts, with most of these dollars coming from the federal government.
Alan He contributed a report from Atlanta.
