You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
Virginia Foxx, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, says the investigation into the three universities will involve substantial document requests, threatening subpoenas if they don’t comply.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images
The House Education and Workforce Committee said Thursday that it would formally investigate Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania for their recent responses to campus antisemitism—and warned that other inquiries could follow.
North Carolina representative Virginia Foxx, the Republican chair of the committee, said in a statement Thursday that the testimony of the three institutions’ presidents at a hearing on antisemitism earlier this week was “absolutely unacceptable.”
“Committee members have deep concerns with their leadership and their failure to take steps to provide Jewish students the safe learning environment they are due under law,” Foxx said.
The committee is planning to investigate the “learning environment” at the three universities, along with their policies and disciplinary procedures. The probe will include “substantial document requests” and subpoenas.
Harvard president Claudine Gay and Penn president Liz Magill have been under fire for their comments at Tuesday’s hearing, particularly their refusal at the time to clearly say that calling for the genocide of Jewish people was against their institutional policies. Both presidents later walked back their comments.
Gay told The Harvard Crimson that the university would comply with the investigation.
“The disgusting targeting and harassment of Jewish students is not limited to these institutions, and other universities should expect investigations as well, as their litany of similar failures has not gone unnoticed,” Foxx said.
