Universities lost complete control of their campuses due to weak leadership, new Congressional report finds

“University administrators, faculty, and staff were cowards who fully capitulated to the mob and failed the students they were supposed to serve.” – U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, (R-NC, 5th Dist.) and Chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce

A scathing report released Oct. 31 by the U.S. Republican House Education and the Workforce Committee finds that after a year-long study, Ivy League university administrators allowed unchecked antisemitism to rage on their campuses following the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.

Eleven universities were investigated: Harvard, Columbia, Barnard, Northwestern, Rutgers, Yale, Pennsylvania, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, Berkeley, the Massachusetts of Technology and George Washington.

The committee report accuses the schools’ leadership of allowing rampant antisemitism as pro-Palestinian students organized demonstrations at campuses across the country over the spring and summer, which upended classes, buildings, final exams, graduations and heaped unfettered bigotry against Jewish students.

“Information obtained by the Committee reveals a stunning lack of accountability by university leaders for students engaging in antisemitic harassment, assault, trespass, and destruction of school property. At every school investigated by the Committee, the overwhelming majority of students facing disciplinary action for antisemitic harassment or other violations of policy received only minimal discipline. At some schools, such as Columbia and Harvard, radical faculty members worked to prevent disciplinary action from being taken against students who violated official policies and even the law,” the study says.

“Around the country, extremist antisemitic encampments were allowed to form in direct contravention of institutional policy and the law. At Columbia, students who engaged in the criminal takeover of a university building were allowed to evade accountability. At Northwestern, radical faculty members were put in charge of negotiating with their own ideological allies in that campus’ encampment, leading to a stunning capitulation to the encampment leaders’ demands. At Rutgers, protesters faced no consequences for an encampment that disrupted exams for more than 1,000 students. UCLA’s leadership was unwilling to directly confront a violent, antisemitic encampment, even when antisemitic checkpoints denied Jewish students access to areas of campus,” the study added.

“These individual incidents and others that this report highlights are evidence of a broader environment on these campuses that is hostile to Jewish students. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), universities that receive federal funds have an obligation to prevent and to address hostile environments based on race, color, or national origin (including a hostile environment against religious groups based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics). Instead of fulfilling these legal obligations, in numerous cases, university leaders turned their backs on their campuses’ Jewish communities, intentionally withholding support in a time of need,” the study further stated.

Claudine Gay, Harvard University’s first Black president, resigned six months after being hired, the shortest tenure in Harvard’s history. Calls for her resignation came after the university faced criticism for its response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and her congressional testimony. She also faced plagiarism accusations among her handling of the protests.

On Aug. 2, Alan Gaber, a Jew, was installed as the new president of Harvard.

In all, four Ivy League presidents were pressured to resign: Claudine Gay from Harvard, Columbia University President Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, and Jonathan Holloway of Rutgers.

The University of California spent $29 million to handle protests, with UCLA spending nearly $12.3 million and UC Berkeley spending $8 million, the schools reported. City College of New York said it spent over $3 million on security costs, including fencing and additional security guards.

An article written in the The Intercept, shows the manpower, equipment and resources used to quell the take over of Hamilton Hall on Columbia University’s campus on April 30, with subsequent policing through May 17. Overtime money paid to officers was paid by taxpayers, not the university. Taxpayers will also absorb lawsuits filed against police departments who they say mistreated them during arrests on campus.

New York City said it has paid more than $500 million in misconduct settlements over the last six years.