The Republican-led House Education and the Workforce Committee officially launched its antisemitism probe into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday, with a letter demanding that the university hand over records pertaining to antisemitic discrimination on campus in two weeks’ time.
Representative Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), who serves as the committee’s head, wrote to MIT president Sally Kornbluth and MIT Corporation chairman Mark Gorenberg regarding the school’s lackluster “response to antisemitism and its failure to protect Jewish students.”
“We have grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of MIT’s response to antisemitism on its campus,” Foxx wrote in the twelve-page letter, pointing to Kornbluth’s divisive testimony before Congress in December. Kornbluth was publicly criticized for her remarks, in which she refused to answer whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate MIT’s campus policies. Despite widespread pushback following her testimony, the university stood by its leader.
At the time, the MIT Corporation said Kornbluth “has done excellent work in leading our community, including in addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate, all of which we reject utterly at MIT. She has our full and unreserved support.”
Kornbluth has since remained in her position, although Claudine Gay and Liz Magill, the respective then-presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, resigned shortly thereafter.
Foxx argued MIT’s endorsement of Kornbluth “stands at odds with the experiences of many Jewish MIT students.” To illustrate her point, the congresswoman cited a survey of 75 Jewish MIT students that found 59 percent had faced antisemitism since October 7 and 73 percent felt uncomfortable as a Jew, Israeli, or Israeli supporter on campus. A separate survey included in the letter found that 74 percent of respondents felt unsafe and thought the administration’s actions were inadequate.
The committee identified several instances where MIT’s Coalition Against Apartheid targeted Jewish students, disrupted classes, and ultimately violated the school’s rules. MIT suspended the group last month following an anti-Israel protest, although the letter claims the suspension has not been enforced.
“MIT has cited its supposed commitment to free speech as limiting its ability to take action against antisemitism on its campus. However, the Institute has demonstrated a clear double standard in how it has tolerated antisemitic harassment and intimidation,” Foxx said.
“MIT’s hypocrisy and selective enforcement of Institute rules,” she added, “exposes the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of its leadership’s rationalizations for their inaction towards antisemitism on campus.”
The committee asked MIT to comply with its inquiry by March 22. The requested information includes, but is not limited to, all reports of antisemitic acts or incidents, all documents containing MIT disciplinary processes, and all documents and communications related to antisemitism or Israel involving the MIT Corporation and several university offices.
MIT has indicated it plans on responding to the request.
“We have received the Committee’s letter and are examining it. MIT is committed to providing a response to the Committee’s questions,” a university spokesperson said.