Home Republicans are demanding particulars about incidents of “pervasive antisemitism” at Columbia College — even after the departure of its president who let anti-Israel college students take over campus final 12 months.
Schooling and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) fired off a letter Thursday to the Ivy League college, demanding details about incidents starting from Hillary Clinton being shouted down by anti-Israel protesters to letting undergrads who occupied Hamilton Corridor skate on disciplinary costs.
“Columbia’s failure to handle the pervasive antisemitism that persists on campus is untenable, significantly on condition that the college receives billions in federal funding,” Walberg (R-Mich.) wrote within the missive to interim president Katrina Armstrong.
The Republican chairman stated directors had an opportunity to reset within the fall semester after the 2023-2024 college 12 months led to “turmoil,” because the college’s former president Minouche Shafik described it when she resigned final August.
Demonstrators had descended on the Morningside Heights college and arrange an anti-Israel encampment in late April, cancelling in-person courses and prompting a rabbi to warning Jewish college students in opposition to returning to campus attributable to “excessive antisemitism.”
The mayhem culminated in college students breaking into Hamilton Corridor and barricading themselves inside with custodians — who later needed to “courageously combat” their means out of the constructing, in response to their lawyer.
NYPD officers broke up the occupation on April 30, arresting a whole bunch of demonstrators.
Columbia directors claimed that a minimum of 22 of them confronted expulsion after being charged by authorities — however has but to observe via.
Seven of these concerned have already graduated. The remainder are having their disciplinary hearings adjudicated earlier than the College Judicial Board.
Walberg claims that none will face critical penalties due to the college having “jettisoned” code of conduct insurance policies meant to make sure “secure demonstrations.”
Since that reversal, protesters have vandalized property on campus, chanted “lengthy reside the Intifada” inside a Jewish scholar middle, assaulted classmates and issued statements of help for Hamas.
Masked demonstrators in keffiyehs disrupted an Israeli historical past class simply final month by distributing flyers with symbols of the phobia group that bore the message, “THE ENEMY WILL NOT SEE TOMORROW.”
“For greater than a 12 months, Columbia College leaders have made private and non-private guarantees to Jewish college students, school and Members of Congress that the college would take the steps essential to fight the rampant antisemitism on Columbia’s campus,” Walberg wrote.
“Sadly, Columbia’s Trustees, interim president, and deans haven’t met their guarantees or commitments. Their negligence has created a hostile surroundings for members of Columbia’s Jewish communities and resulted in extreme disruptions to the college’s studying surroundings.”
The chairman gave Columbia till Feb. 27 handy over disciplinary information on incidents spanning from April 30, 2024, to Jan. 29, 2025.
Final 12 months, the Home Schooling Committee investigated Ivy League universities like Columbia and Harvard in addition to state faculties like Rutgers and UCLA and concluded that Jewish college students had been “harassed, assaulted, intimidated, and subjected to hostile environments.”
“Columbia has cooperated extensively with the earlier congressional inquiries and can proceed to take action,” a college spokesperson stated in an announcement. “Since assuming her function in August, Interim President Armstrong and her management workforce have taken decisive actions to handle problems with antisemitism.”
“Beneath the College’s new management, we now have established a centralized Workplace of Institutional Fairness to handle all reviews of discrimination and harassment, appointed a brand new Guidelines Administrator, and strengthened the capabilities of our Public Security Workplace.”
Supply hyperlink
