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The House of Representatives passed a bipartisan resolution Wednesday to condemn the testimony of three university presidents at a hearing last week and call on those presidents to resign.
The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ignited a furor when they failed to clearly state at the hearing that calling for the genocide of Jewish people violates university policies on bullying and harassment. The resolution says their answers “were evasive and dismissive.”
Penn president Liz Magill resigned over the weekend following the backlash. The boards at Harvard and MIT have publicly backed their presidents.
New York representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican, who questioned the presidents repeatedly at the hearing, co-sponsored the resolution along with Louisiana representative Steve Scalise, a Republican, and two Democrats—Florida representative Jared Moskowitz and New Jersey representative Josh Gottheimer. “This is just the first step in rooting out the rot of antisemitism at university campuses,” Stefanik tweeted Wednesday after speaking on the floor.
The document also condemns the rise of antisemitism on college campuses.
The resolution passed with the support of 84 Democrats and 219 Republicans. It was considered under suspension of the rules, requiring a two-thirds majority to pass.
New York representative Jerry Nadler, a Democrat, voted no and said in a statement that the resolution “exploits Jewish lives to score political points” and that Congress should not meddle in the hiring and firing of college presidents.
“MAGA Republicans have spent years undermining America's colleges and universities—attacking these schools for their efforts at diversity and inclusion, for their support of the LGBTQ+ community, and for teaching the history of the United States in a way that does not fit their preferred narrative,” Nadler said. “Today’s resolution exploits real fear about antisemitism in America to advance that extreme agenda.”
The House Education and Workforce Committee opened an investigation into the three institutions after the hearing. On Wednesday, the committee launched an email address where college students, faculty and community members can report incidents of antisemitism on campus.
