Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 8, 2023 / 18:30 pm
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce announced the launch of a formal investigation into the learning environments at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Pennsylvania after the universities’ presidents refused to categorically condemn antisemitic calls for genocide at a congressional hearing earlier this week.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, told CNA that the investigation was being launched because of committee members’ “deep concerns” about the schools’ leadership and “their failure to take steps to provide Jewish students the safe learning environment they are due under law.”
“The testimony we received earlier this week from Presidents [Claudine] Gay, [Liz] Magill, and [Sally] Kornbluth about the responses of Harvard, UPenn, and MIT to the rampant antisemitism displayed on their campuses by students and faculty was absolutely unacceptable,” said Foxx, who is Catholic.
Though the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania have since published statements walking back their congressional testimony, Foxx said that their statements in the House, and those of MIT president Kornbluth, evidence a dangerous learning environment for Jewish students.