Harvard, Penn, MIT formally rebuked over campus antisemitism after House resolution passes

The House passed a bipartisan resolution Wednesday denouncing the widely criticized congressional testimony last week of three of the nation’s most prominent university presidents about how they’re handling a troubling rise in antisemitism on campus.

The measure was introduced by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.; and two centrist Jewish Democrats, Reps. Jared Moskowitz of Florida and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey. It passed by a 303-126 vote.

The rebuke wasn't entirely bipartisan, however. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin was among other Jewish Democrats who voted no and chastised their Republican colleagues for what they characterized as a political stunt.

The resolution, Raskin suggested, was irrational in part because Sally Kornbluth, the president of MIT, is Jewish.

"This cannibalistic instinct they've unleashed now turns on private citizens, academic leaders, who will wear the scarlet letter A so they can have some more press conferences," Raskin said from the House floor, referring to Republicans.

What happened when elite schools' presidents testified before Congress?

Stefanik’s viral line of questioning to the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology led to the ouster of one of the leaders, Liz Magill from Penn, over the weekend. Medical school dean J. Larry Jameson was announced as interim president on Tuesday.

With alumni and trustee support, Claudine Gay of Harvard and Kornbluth of MIT survived calls in recent days for their resignations.

Harvard President Claudine Gay to stay, university leaders affirm support

When Stefanik, a Harvard graduate, asked the presidents on Dec. 5 whether endorsing the genocide of Jews would violate university policies, their cautious responses drew immediate scrutiny.

‘‘It is a context-dependent decision,” Magill said. Gay and Kornbluth similarly responded that the situation would depend on the context, though all three presidents explicitly denounced antisemitism and Islamophobia during the hearing.

As backlash over that moment mounted, the House’s GOP-led education committee announced a formal investigation into the universities’ handling of the rise in antisemitism on their campuses since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in early October.

More than 70 lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, signed a letter, also led by Stefanik, urging the presidents to step aside. Wednesday's resolution makes reference to Magill's resignation and says the other presidents "should follow suit."

Under pressure: Ivy League universities pressed to address antisemitism after presidents testify

“Those university presidents made history by putting the most morally bankrupt testimony into the congressional record, and the world saw it,” Stefanik said at a news conference this week.

Tussle over antisemitism activism

Magill resigned Saturday, as did the chair of Penn’s board of trustees, Scott Bok. In a statement to USA TODAY, Bok said Magill was “not herself” during the hearing. She had been “worn down by months of relentless external attacks," he said.

“Over prepared and over lawyered given the hostile forum and high stakes, she provided a legalistic answer to a moral question, and that made for a dreadful 30-second sound bite in what was more than five hours of testimony,” he said.

Also Wednesday, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the chairwoman of the House education committee, announced a new resource where students and faculty who feel they've experienced antisemitic harassment can report those incidents.

The student-led editorial board at the Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper, decried in an editorial Tuesday what they saw as political interference dressed up as a prescription for antisemitism.

“In name, the hearing was about students fearing for their safety; in practice, it was a pretext for opportunistic politicians to launch an all-out assault on higher education,” the board wrote.

Education Department opens more civil rights probes

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has said his department’s civil rights division has received a deluge of complaints related to alleged antisemitic and anti-Muslim harassment.

In the last two weeks, the agency opened a dozen new investigations into colleges and school districts across the country over potential violations of Title VI, a law that forbids shared ancestry discrimination at schools that receive federal funding. Those schools included Stanford University in California and Rutgers University in New Jersey.

In November, the department revealed exactly how many Title VI probes opened since the start of the war were at the time specifically related to allegations of antisemitism (five) or Islamophobia (two). Since then, however, the agency has refused to provide those specific details when they announce new cases, which happens typically once a week.

Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY

Zachary Schermele is a breaking news and education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Campus antisemitism: House passes measure rebuking college presidents