“As you confront our questions in this hearing, remember that you are not speaking to us, but to the students on your campus who have been threatened and assaulted and who look to you to protect them.”
The hearing cast a spotlight on Presidents Claudine Gay of Harvard, Liz Magill of U-Penn. and Sally Kornbluth of MIT, and on tensions that have flared at their campuses and elsewhere in the weeks since Hamas launched a surprise attack on Oct. 7 that killed about 1,200 people in Israel.
The ensuing Israeli military campaign against Hamas has caused calamitous destruction in the densely populated Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Health Ministry calculates the death toll at more than 15,000.
Many college and university leaders have searched for the right words and actions to comfort their communities since the war began. In the initial days, some also were scrambling to coordinate help for students and faculty members who may have been traveling in Israel and the Palestinian territories or were based there.
On campus, antisemitism is not the only concern for these leaders. They also are seeking to prevent Islamophobia and other forms of bias and hatred while safeguarding freedom of expression for faculty members and students in a time of vigils, demonstrations and confrontations.
“I am deeply troubled by instances of inflammatory rhetoric and division on campus,” Gay told the committee in prepared remarks. “Individuals are reporting feeling threatened by others in our community. The chilling effect created by these tactics threatens to turn our community of learning and trust into an environment of alienation and fear.”
Among the steps Harvard is taking, Gay said, the university is increasing security in student residences and other campus spaces and launching a “robust program” of training for students, faculty members and staffers on antisemitism and Islamophobia. “We will not cease our work until all members of our community feel safe and respected so they can learn and thrive,” she said.
Magill and Kornbluth also pledged efforts to stem religious hatred.
“I have condemned antisemitism publicly, regularly, and in the strongest terms possible and today want to reiterate my and Penn’s commitment to combating it,” Magill said in prepared remarks.
“As an American, as a Jew, and as a human being, I abhor antisemitism, and my administration is combating it actively,” Kornbluth said in her prepared testimony. She said campus initiatives also will address rising Islamophobia. “MIT will take on both, not lumped together, but with equal energy and in parallel,” she said.
Democrats say they, too, want to prevent antisemitism and Islamophobia. They urged Republicans to support Biden administration efforts on that front, particularly at the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. Democrats accused Republicans of paying too much attention to culture wars and not enough to funding key federal agencies.
“You cannot have it both ways,” Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (Va.), the committee’s top Democrat, said in his prepared remarks. “Calling for action and then hamstringing the agency charged with protecting students’ civil rights rings hollow.”