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House Republicans are escalating their ongoing investigation of antisemitism at Harvard University, serving subpoenas for documents to three senior officials and making good on a threat issued weeks ago.
Harvard has turned over 2,516 pages of documents in response to the House Education and Workforce Committee’s request sent in early January. But the committee’s chairwoman, North Carolina Republican Virginia Foxx, has called that response “severely insufficient,” noting that 40 percent of the documents were already publicly available.
“Harvard’s continued failure to satisfy the committee’s requests is unacceptable,” Foxx said in a statement Friday after issuing the subpoenas. “I will not tolerate delay and defiance of our investigation while Harvard’s Jewish students continue to endure the firestorm of antisemitism that has engulfed its campus. If Harvard is truly committed to combating antisemitism, it has had every opportunity to demonstrate its commitment with actions, not words.”
Foxx wants Harvard to provide all documents and communications referring and relating to the university’s response to a student statement that blamed the Hamas attack on Israel and social media posts by students and faculty targeting Jewish students, among other incidents.
The subpoenas also include documents and communications about antisemitic incidents since January 2021 as well as records of disciplinary actions related to antisemitism. The officials have until March 4 to respond.
Harvard is one of several institutions currently under investigation by the committee, which is probing their responses to campus antisemitism as well as the learning environments at the universities. So far, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University have also received requests for documents. These subpoenas signal that the committee is intent on following through on those requests.
“It is my hope that these subpoenas serve as a wake-up call to Harvard that Congress will not tolerate antisemitic hate in its classrooms or on campus,” Foxx said.
