April 17 (UPI) — Leaders at Columbia University will face a House hearing over campus anti-Semitism similar to the one in December which preceded two college presidents who appeared losing their jobs.
Columbia’s President Minouche Shafik, who missed December’s hearing because of a scheduling conflict, will appear alongside the board of trustees co-chairs Claire Shipman and David Greenwald as well as Columbia’s law school dean emeritus Davis Schizer, who leads the school’s anti-Semitism task force, before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Shafik said she was prepared to “share what we have learned as we battle this ancient hatred at Columbia University.”
Columbia is one of several universities facing an investigation by the House committee over anti-Semitism on campus alongside Harvard, Penn, MIT, Rutgers and the University of California at Berkeley.
It is also subject to a broad investigation by the U.S. Department of Education looking into discrimination on college campuses.
Committee Chair Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said she called the hearing focusing on Columbia because it was host to “some of the worst cases of anti-Semitic assaults, harassment and vandalism on campus.”
December’s hearing sparked fury among some over answers from the presidents of Harvard, MIT and Pennsylvania as they tried to navigate issues of harassment and free speech.
It was Rep. Elise Stefanik’s refusal to accept vague answers from the presidents on what constitutes violations of their policies that made embarrassing headlines for the school leaders.
University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned shortly after December’s hearing.
Harvard’s President Claudine Gay, who was facing unrelated plagiarism charges resigned soon afterward after her remarks were also strongly criticized.
