University officials made “shocking concessions” to anti-Israel protesters and withheld support from Jewish students as pro-Gaza unrest roiled college campuses in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, according to a long-awaited House report.
The final Republican staff report of the House Education and the Workforce Committee’s yearlong investigation into campus antisemitism was unsparing in its criticism of academic leaders, finding that they “capitulated to the mob” by allowing student activists to violate campus rules with impunity.
“Information obtained by the Committee reveals a stunning lack of accountability by university leaders for students engaging in antisemitic harassment, assault, trespass, and destruction of school property,” said the “Antisemitism on College Campuses Exposed” report released Thursday.
Even so, the 325-page report found that at “every school investigated by the Committee, the overwhelming majority of students facing disciplinary action for antisemitic harassment or other violations of policy received only minimal discipline.”
The investigation into postsecondary institutions included interviews and documents from 11 universities: Harvard, Columbia, Barnard, Northwestern, Rutgers, Yale, Penn, UCLA, Berkeley, MIT, and George Washington.
Not a single student was expelled for misconduct at the 11 universities, while six of the 11 schools “failed to impose a single suspension” even as activists took over swaths of the campus, disrupted classes, and harassed Jewish students, the report found.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Republican and the committee chairwoman, said some universities have “likely” violated Title VI, which bars discrimination based on race, color and national origin, and includes Jewish identity, putting at risk their federal funding.
“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,” Ms. Foxx said.
“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,” she added.
She called on the executive branch to “enforce the laws and ensure colleges and universities restore order and guarantee that all students have a safe learning environment.”
The report said that universities fell short in four ways: by giving “shocking concessions” to students who built unlawful anti-Israel encampments; by waffling on support for Jewish students; by failing to impose “meaningful discipline” on student violations of campus rules and the law; and by resisting congressional oversight.
For example, Northwestern put “radical anti-Israel faculty” in charge of negotiating with encampment leaders; approved a proposal to “quietly” boycott hummus made by Israel-based brand Sabra; and considered an activist demand to hire an “anti-Zionist” rabbi.
At UCLA, campus police alerted the administration on April 25 after 50 unidentified people began unloading tents, pallets and logs on Royce Quad, but officers were told to “hold off,” setting the stage for an “eruption of violence” on April 30 as encampment protesters clashed with counter-protesters.
“By rewarding egregious conduct violations with staggering concessions rather than enforcing university rules, these agreements set dangerous precedents that invite future chaos and could open colleges and universities up to potential violations of Title VI,” said the report.
At Harvard, the initial draft of the university’s post-Oct. 7 statement was edited to remove both a reference to the more than 200 hostages kidnapped by Hamas and to remove the word “violent” to describe the Islamist terror group.
In addition, when Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker raised concerns over students using the phrase “from the river to the sea,” saying that “it feels very anti-Semitic to me,” she received considerable pushback from Harvard’s then-President Claudine Gay and her successor, Alan Garber.
At Columbia, the university initially said that 22 students arrested April 30 for occupying Hamilton Hall would face expulsion, but later lifted their interim suspensions “after pressure from radical faculty and students,” the committee said.
Seven of the 22 students were allowed to graduate; 11 are in good standing, and one remains on disciplinary probation. Three are still suspended. Another 27 students arrested outside Hamilton Hall had their disciplinary cases closed on grounds of “insufficient evidence.”
“This feckless response comes despite the grave nature of the incident, during which the students and others who occupied the building shattered windows, barricaded doorways, covered security cameras, and held University custodians against their will,” said the report.
At UCLA, 96 students were arrested in May as police cleared the encampment, but 92 signed resolution agreements “that let them off the hook without consequence.” No student has been suspended or put on probation for conduct related to the protests, the report said.
At Penn, 21 students were investigated for their involvement in the encampment, nine of whom were arrested, but only two were suspended. Both were repeat offenders.
Harvard didn’t suspend a single student for anti-Israel and antisemitic protest activity, despite bringing 68 disciplinary cases related to the encampment. Of those, 53 received disciplinary probation, but 35 of them were then downgraded by the school’s administrative board.
The committee obtained more than 400,000 pages of documents during its investigation, which saw the panel issue the first subpoenas in its 157-year history.
The presidents of Harvard and Penn both stepped down after giving much-criticized testimony at the committee’s Dec. 5 hearing on campus antisemitism.
U.S. universities geared for the 2024-25 academic year by strengthening and clarifying their policies on campus protests, as well as establishing task forces on antisemitism and requiring antisemitism education.
The Anti-Defamation League commended 10 universities Wednesday for making “positive strides to fight campus antisemitism,” including Penn, Barnard and New York University.
In a Thursday statement, a Columbia spokesperson said that the university has taken “decisive actions” to reinforce its academic mission, increase safety, and improve its disciplinary processes.
“Under the University’s new leadership, we have established a centralized Office of Institutional Equity to address all reports of discrimination and harassment, appointed a new Rules Administrator, and strengthened the capabilities of our Public Safety Office,” the spokesperson said. “We are committed to applying the rules fairly, consistently, and efficiently.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.