Update: Campus anti-Semitism hearing puts faculty and funding under fire
Republican lawmakers confronted university leaders in Washington, D.C. over what they called a systemic failure to address rising antisemitism on campus.
Republican members of the House Education and Workforce Committee pressed university leaders on Tuesday about what lawmakers say is inadequate action on antisemitism following the October 7 Hamas attacks.
The hearing, announced in June and titled “Antisemitism in Higher Education: Examining the Role of Faculty, Funding, and Ideology,” featured Georgetown interim President Robert Groves, City University of New York Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, and UC–Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons.
[RELATED: University of Michigan regents receive 24/7 security after pro-Hamas attacks]
Chairman Tim Walberg accused universities of allowing a permissive campus culture. He singled out CUNY for a faculty hire tied to pro-Palestinian viewpoints and criticized Berkeley for its faculty union’s stance, The Washington Post reported.
CUNY’s Rodríguez defended his institution, stating it enforces a “zero-tolerance policy” on encampments and hires additional security after arresting demonstrators over the past year.
Georgetown’s Groves expressed regret over a professor who compared Israel’s actions to those of Nazi Germany, reaffirming that the university quickly condemned Hamas’ October 7 attack and has since fostered interfaith dialogue.
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At Berkeley, Chancellor Lyons emphasized free speech protections, saying that faculty are chosen based on academic standards and not on ideological conditions.
”Today’s hearing was a stark reminder that antisemitism isn’t coming from nowhere: faculty groups, foreign funding, and radical ideologies are all feeding this disease,” House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg said in a statement to Campus Reform. “While today’s hearing was revealing, it’s clear that university leaders are not doing enough to address antisemitism or protect Jewish students and faculty. We have repeatedly seen that university presidents will not follow the law until our Committee calls on them to do so. If that is the case, then our Committee will not rest in its efforts to protect Jews and stamp out antisemitism.”
Other lawmakers have also made it a priority to root out targeted foreign funding and radical ideologies from American campuses.
”Our mission has been clear: hold college leaders accountable for their failure to confront antisemitism. And our message at every hearing has been just as clear: eradicate this top-down culture of hate or face the consequences. America’s students pay good money to be educated, not to be harassed, hated, or disrespected. We will not stop until this evil is rooted out of every campus,” Rep. Burgess Owens, chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, said in a statement to Campus Reform.
Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D‑Va.) criticized the hearing’s narrow focus, noting it was the ninth such session since December 2023 and that issues like racism and Islamophobia received no attention.
Campus Reform reached out to Rep. Elise Stefanik, Rep. Burgess Owens, and the House Committee on Education and Workforce for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.