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Leaders of several universities, including the interim president of Georgetown University, were pressed Tuesday by members of a U.S. House panel about persistent antisemitism on college campuses and what they are doing to address its root causes.
Rep. Tim Walberg, a Republican representing Michigan’s 5th District and chairman of the Committee on Education and Workforce, said antisemitism remains a problem on campuses for a wide range of reasons and needs to be rooted out.
“Universities can choose to choose to hire antisemitic faculty, welcome students with a history of antisemitism, accept certain foreign funding and let the behavior of antisemitic unions go unchecked,” Walberg said.
But he added, “They do so at their own risk.”
Robert Groves, interim president of Georgetown University, told the committee that the Jesuit school was one of the first universities to condemn the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
“Georgetown is not perfect, and as events evolve, we’ve had to clarify rules of student behavior,” Groves said. “But since Oct. 7, Georgetown has not experienced an encampment, physical violence, cancellation of commencement activities or city police activities.”
Like Groves, Felix Matos Rodriguez, chancellor of The City University of New York, and Rich Lyons, chancellor of the University of California Berkeley, said their institutions have taken specific steps to address antisemitism.
But Republican lawmakers repeatedly questioned them about controversial statements made by faculty or those associated with their universities, as well as antisemitic incidents reported on their campuses.
Georgetown leader questioned about ‘eviction notices’ for Jewish students
Rep. Glenn Thompson, a Republican representing Pennsylvania’s 15th District, asked Groves a series of questions related to matters at Georgetown.
One of them was a 2024 incident in which mock “eviction notices” were placed on dorm doors of Jewish students, which accused Israel of genocide.
“We acted on that immediately,” Groves said, noting that the material was quickly removed by school staff.
He said the perpetrator was identified and disciplined.
Grove also said the school takes any antisemitic incidents that can impact students in the classroom very seriously.
“I can assure you congressman, that we have dismissed faculty for antisemitic behavior on social media, in the classroom and also dismissed staff for the same behavior,” Grove said.
Earlier this year, an Indian national who was a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown, was detained by the Department of Homeland Security.
A DHS spokesman accused Badar Khan Suri of promoting antisemitism and spreading Hamas propaganda.
His attorneys said he had done nothing wrong and did not take part in Israel-Hamas war protests, though he had made statements supporting Palestinians on social media.
He was released from immigration detention in May after a two-month battle, after a federal judge in Virginia ruled he had substantial constitutional claims against the administration.
Khan Suri’s arrest followed a separate warning from a former appointee of President Donald Trump.
The former acting U.S. attorney for D.C., Ed Martin, had told Georgetown Law School students they would not be given internships or jobs in his office if the school didn’t do more to remove Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies from its curriculum.
The law school dean said the school would not give in to Martin’s threat. Martin is no longer the acting U.S. attorney for D.C.
Democrats say GOP is slighting other education issues
Tuesday’s hearing is the latest held by House Republicans, who along with Trump, have pressed universities to do more to address antisemitism and take steps to deal with pro-Palestinian activists on campuses.
The Trump administration has gone after Harvard University, recently stating that a federal task force found that it tolerated antisemitic harassment of Jewish students and faculty.
Harvard had previously lost more than $2.6 billion in research grants, after rejecting federal demands to change its hiring and admissions practices.
Several Democrats during Tuesday’s hearing suggested Republicans are highlighting antisemitism and DEI issues for political reasons, while ignoring other serious issues involving education.
Rep. Bobby Scott, a Democrat representing Virginia’s 3rd District, said while the committee has held nine hearings in the past 18 months on antisemitism, there have been no hearings on racism or other biases facing various student groups.
Scott and other Democrats noted that GOP lawmakers have been silent about the “wholesale firing” of staff from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which investigates allegations of bias related to race and religion at schools and college campuses.
Nearly half the staff from that office were laid off earlier this year.
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