June 4, 2024
Inside the Latest Congressional Hearing on Campus Antisemitism
By Finn Cooley
Students for Justice in Palestine called the hearing “a manufactured attack on higher education” as Republicans criticized universities for negotiating with protesters.
During a three-hour hearing on Thursday, May 23, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce grilled four university leaders on their response to student protests against US involvement in the Israel-Gaza war.
This round of questioning was the third installment in the Republican-led committee’s quest to probe university presidents. Previous hearings brought chaos to the tenures of other leaders who testified before the body. Last year, the presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania resigned after being questioned by the committee and facing mounting public pressure to step down.
Committee Chair Rep. Virginia Foxx called the president of Northwestern University Michael Schill, chancellor at the University of California, Los Angeles Gene Block, and president of Rutgers University Jonathan Holloway to Capitol Hill following the formation—and subsequent removal—of pro-Palestinian Gaza solidarity encampments on their campuses. Student protesters demanded, among other measures, divestment of their university’s endowment from companies affiliated with Israel.
