House passes resolution condemning college presidents’ comments in antisemitism hearing

Lawmakers approved the resolution in a 303-126 vote, with 125 Democrats and one Republican voting against the measure

The House has passed a bipartisan resolution condemning the presidents of Harvard, UPenn and MIT after their testimony at a Congressional hearing on campus antisemitism last week.

The resolution states that their testimony was “evasive and dismissive” when asked if calls for the genocide of Jews violate university policies on bullying and harassment. It adds that they failed “to simply condemn such action.”

It comes after Havard president Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill and MIT president Sally Kornbluth all appeared in front of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce last week to testify about their colleges’ responses to alleged incidents of antisemitism on campuses since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

During the hearing, all three presidents failed to explicitly say that calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their colleges’ harassment and bullying codes.

Instead, they took the stance that it ”depends on the context” — something all three later apologised for, with Ms Magill later resigning from her position after UPenn alum and Wall Street CEO Ross Stevens threatened to strip the university of a $100m donation if she did not step down.

The House resolution states that Ms Gay and Ms Kornbluth, both of whom have received unanimous support from their University executive committees, should “follow suit” and resign as well.

From left to right, Dr. Claudine Gay, President of Harvard University, Liz Magill, President of University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Pamela Nadell, Professor of History and Jewish Studies at American University, and Dr. Sally Kornbluth, President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Getty Images)

Lawmakers approved the resolution in a 303-126 vote, with 125 Democrats and one Republican voting against the measure. Three Democrats voted present.

The resolution was brought by House GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik, as well as House majority leader Steve Scalise and Democratic reps Jared Moskowitz and Josh Gottheimer.

Ms Stefanik played a key role in the Congressional hearing last week, questioning the three presidents, and calling for the three women to be removed from their roles. Following the news that Ms Magill had stepped down from her role over the weekend, Ms Stefanik tweeted: “One down. Two to go.”

Their testimony has generated significant criticism and intense scrutiny from business leaders and donors in addition to lawmakers.

Following the hearing, a bipartisan group of lawmakers sent a letter to the governing boards of Harvard, UPenn, and MIT urging them to remove their university leaders.

Rep Elise Stefanik (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Harvard alum and billionaire Bill Ackman has also been a vocal critic of the three presidents, calling on them to “resign in disgrace”.

In an open letter to Harvard’s governing board on Sunday, Mr Ackman wrote: “As a result of President Gay’s failure to enforce Harvard’s own rules, Jewish students, faculty and others are fearful for their own safety as even the physical abuse of students remains unpunished.

“Knowing what we know now, would Harvard consider Claudine Gay for the position? The answer is definitively “No.” With this simple thought experiment, the board’s decision on President Gay could not be more straightforward.”

However, leadership at Harvard and MIT have so far defied significant pressure to remove their presidents, with The Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, releasing a statement on Tuesday throwing their unanimous support behind Ms Gay, calling her the “right leader to help our community heal”.

Meanwhile, the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation, MIT’s governing board, issued a statement last week saying that Ms Kornbluth has their “full and unreserved support.”