College presidents face tough questions from Congress over antisemitism on campus

Claudine Gay, Liz Magill, Pamela Nadell and Sally Kornbluth testify before the House Education and Workforce Committee.
Claudine Gay, Liz Magill, Pamela Nadell and Sally Kornbluth testify before the House Education and Workforce Committee. (Photo: CBS/Getty Images)

WASHINTON (CBS) — Three college presidents testified before a House committee on Tuesday about how they have handled antisemitic incidents on their campuses since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel, with many Republican lawmakers insisting they aren’t doing enough to root out and denounce anti-Jewish sentiments.

Harvard University’s Claudine Gay, the University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sally Kornbluth appeared before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to explain and defend their approaches. College campuses continue to be roiled by protests and tensions related to the Israel-Hamas war.

Republicans, including House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, questioned why the administrators haven’t yet punished students or eliminated student groups using hateful and violent language against Jews. The presidents expressed that they disdain antisemitic language but also value free speech.

A number of reported antisemitic incidents have prompted accusations that universities are not doing enough to protect students. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, among other schools, after receiving alleged complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia. Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT are private institutions but receive millions of dollars in federal funding, making them subject to federal anti-discrimination laws.

In one of the more tense exchanges during the hearing, Stefanik pressed Gay on some Harvard students’ chants of “intifada,” a reference to Palestinian uprisings in Gaza and the West Bank against Israel. Gay said that “type of hateful speech is personally abhorrent to me” and “at odds with the values of Harvard.”

Still, Gay said, “We embrace a commitment to free expression, and give a wide berth to free expression, even of views that are objectionable, outrageous and offensive.” Stefanik later asked Gay if “calling for the genocide of Jews” constitutes bullying and harassment, according to Harvard’s rules. Gay said the language is “antisemitic,” but did not say it necessarily constitutes bullying and harassment.

Categories: Top Stories, US, World