The House of Representatives Committee on Education & the Workforce released their report on college campus antisemitism since Oct. 7, 2023, that found university administrators across the country gave large concessions to protesters who set up illegal encampments, withheld support from Jewish students and largely failed to discipline students engaging in antisemitic conduct, among other issues over the past year.
The Committee, led by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), began their investigation into college antisemitism on Dec. 7, 2023, investigating Harvard, Yale and MIT to see if the universities had created a discriminatory environment for Jews on campus in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act before expanding their investigation as incidents exploded at other schools.
The report concluded that the environment created on many of these campuses were hostile to Jewish students and likely violated Title VI and called for a “reassessment of federal support,” for universities that had failed to do their duty in protecting Jewish students, faculty and staff.
“The Congressional Education Committee’s findings make clear that the problem on college campuses goes beyond a handful of hateful student activists. There is an antisemitic rot deep in university administrations, and it needs to be cleaned out from top to bottom,” said Nathan Diament, the executive director for public policy at the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
The first key finding in the report was that university leaders gave “shocking” concessions to encampment protesters that showed a failure to enforce rules and put students and staff at risk by rewarding such behavior.
The report alleges that at Northwestern University, the president put anti-Israel faculty in charge of negotiating with the protesters who subsequently coached protesters on the best ways to achieve their goals of divestment. The university provost also agreed to a proposal on a boycott of Sabra Hummus and leadership considered a proposal to hire an anti-Zionist rabbi to work at the school’s Hillel.
Meanwhile at Columbia University, the report states that protesters were offered far more concessions than previously publicly known, including a menu of potential options for protesters.
The menu offered amnesty for breaking university policies by creating the encampment, consideration of wide-ranging divestment proposals and the end of a dual-degree program with Tel Aviv University, among other options.
The report also targeted UCLA for its passive response to the encampment that barred Jewish students from accessing areas on campus and led to a violent clash with counterprotesters in the early morning hours of April 30 after nearly a week of inaction from leadership.
Another key finding in the report was an intentional lack of university leadership providing public support for the Jewish community, notably at Harvard and Columbia.
The report stated Harvard administrators held discussions around condemning Hamas for the attack and mentioning the hostages after two days of silence on the matter and chose not to do so. The statement was also amended from an initial draft that removed the word “violent” in describing the attacks.
Harvard leadership similarly did not take a stance on the phrase, “From the river to the sea,” in labeling it antisemitic, something some members of Harvard’s staff were asking for, because administrators did not want to have to impose punishment for the phrase’s use.
The report criticized Columbia for not shutting down an incorrect narrative that two Jewish students had committed a chemical attack on anti-Israel protesters despite knowing for months that the allegations were incorrect.
The two students had purchased a prank fart spray online and used it on protesters in January, which was labeled as a military-grade chemical attack by those protesters and led to vilification of Israeli students and posters depicting Israelis as skunks.
The two students were then suspended for a year and a half, and no statement was made correcting the assertions of a chemical attack until Aug. 30, when one of the students reached a $395,000 settlement with the school and had his suspension reduced to probation.
Columbia administration did not make any statement on the dual-degree program that was a heavy target for protesters and was subject to a vote of cancellation by the Columbia College student council after introduction of a ballot referendum. The measure passed and the leadership made no statement reaffirming the right for the program and its students to be on campus despite constant pleas from the community.
The final and most pervasive finding from the report was a lack of punishment for students breaking university policies and engaging in antisemitic conduct, with disciplinary measures in many cases being hampered by people within the universities to help students escape strict punishment.
One example was from the University of Pennsylvania, where a student stole an Israeli flag from another student’s residence, burned it at a rally where they praised the attacks on Oct. 7 before being arrested and charged for theft.
The student was given a sentence of “suspension not imposed” — essentially probation — and a reflective essay assignment. Another Penn student reportedly stole an Israeli flag from a private residence later that year and received the same sentence.
There were other incidents at Penn, where 10 students interrupted a Board of Trustees meeting on March 1 and caused its cancellation. Two of the students received probation and the other eight had to complete reflective essays about a TED Talk. The probation sentences were eventually reduced from the end of the fall 2024 semester to the end of summer 2024.
Nine students were arrested for participation in an encampment on Penn’s campus and refusing to disperse on May 10. Two students received a one-semester suspension each, with five facing disciplinary probation, and two with pending cases.
On May 10, two students were investigated for breaking into the university president’s house and refusing to disperse, causing $18,000 in damages. One student received a one-semester suspension and the other has a pending case.
On May 17, seven students were arrested for attempting to occupy Fisher-Bennett Hall on Penn’s campus, barricading windows and entrances with boards, barbed wire, bike racks and zip ties. Three students were suspended for one semester, two received disciplinary probation and two are not enrolled while their cases are ongoing.
Of the seven students arrested, two had already received one-semester suspensions with one being arrested at the encampment and one for breaking into the president’s property.
Even for repeated rule-breakers, Penn did not institute hefty punishments, a pattern seen across the country.
At George Washington University, 22 protesters faced disciplinary action for participation in their encampment, with only one suspended for a semester and a majority of the rest receiving varying degrees of probation, despite the fact that six students were arrested by D.C. police during the clearing of the encampment.
Another GW student received disciplinary probation for an incident where they entered the campus Hillel building and tore down more than a dozen hostage posters.
The report had many Jewish community members feeling a sense of confirmation from what they’ve been hearing in the news, but some offered hope for a positive change in the local community.
“I think that the release of the report confirms a lot of the anecdotal stories we have been hearing from our peers around the country,” Howard Libit, the executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, said in an email to the Jewish Times. “Here in Maryland, while things have not been perfect, I think we have generally been in a better position on the campuses that we work with… Even when incidents have occurred, we have been able to work with university leaders to try to fix the situations and ensure Jewish students, staff and faculty feel valued and protected. Again, it’s not perfect, but I believe there is a genuine commitment to work together in the right direction.”
