Colleges failed to address antisemitism, House GOP report finds

A House Education and the Workforce Committee report found many universities have failed to adequately discipline antisemitic conduct, saying the committee’s investigation exposed a wave of antisemitism occurring on college campuses after the October 7th Hamas attack prompted the war in Israel.

A summary of the more than 100-page report, released Thursday, alleges the “overwhelming majority” of students accused of antisemitic harassment or other acts of antisemitism on campuses faced minimal disciplinary action for their alleged violations.

Conducted by the Republican majority’s staff, the report investigated 11 schools from Ivy League elites to California’s university system, including the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA.

“This is not the end,” committee spokesperson AnnMarie Graham-Barnes told ABC News in a statement, adding, “As long as Jewish students are facing discrimination and harassment, the Committee will continue to demand better from universities.”

Jewish students from across the country described living in a climate of hatred and fear after Hamas invaded Israel. At a congressional roundtable in February, Yasmeen Ohebsion, of Tulane University, told the committee that she had slurs like “F— you, Jew,” shouted at her since the war began on Oct. 7.

“This is the reality as a Jewish student who wears the Star of David,” Ohebsion said.

At the same roundtable, Jewish Columbia student Eden Yadegar said she was followed around her campus by protesters brandishing sticks last school year. She told ABC News she believes ignoring Jewish students is a “characteristic” of her school’s administration.

A key conclusion from the wide-reaching investigation stated that the alleged chaos – including antisemitic harassment, large-scale disruptions, and pro-Palestinian demonstrations – on college campuses could set a precedent inviting future behaviors and Title VI Civil Rights Act violations.

The event that prompted the committee’s months-long investigation started in December on Capitol Hill at a bombshell hearing on combating antisemitism featuring the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT.

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik asked each school’s president if calling for the genocide of Jews constitutes as hate speech on campus.

The university leaders stated it was a context-dependent answer, which captured countless headlines after the once-quiet committee’s Dec. 5 hearing.

From there, the committee’s investigations have featured several document requests – collecting more than 400,000 pages – historic subpoenas for documents and internal communications – leading to the resignations of multiple college presidents who testified publicly before Congress (Harvard’s Claudine Gay, Penn’s Liz Magill, and Columbia’s Minouche Shafik each resigned before the start of the 2024-2025 academic year).

The committee’s GOP chair, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, said while Jewish students have exhibited courage amid the scourge of alleged antisemitic harassment, the universities failed to protect them and should be held accountable.

“Our investigation has shown that these ‘leaders’ bear the responsibility for the chaos likely violating Title VI and threatening public safety,” Foxx wrote in a statement. “It is time for the executive branch to enforce the laws and ensure colleges and universities restore order and guarantee that all students have a safe learning environment,” she wrote.

In response to the report, a Department of Education official told ABC News the department is committed to investigating complaints of antisemitism and other forms of hate to the full extent of congressionally granted authority. The universities mentioned in the report are all being investigated by the federal Office for Civil Rights.

The committee’s wide-reaching investigation has four core findings:

First, it alleges university administrators showed a dereliction of leadership and capitulated to encampment leaders. The report concluded UCLA enabled a “hostile environment” for Jewish students as it was aware of and failed to remove “antisemitic checkpoints” inside of a tent encampment that “required passerby to wear a specific wristband to cross them.”

Second, the committee said university leaders declined to express support for Jewish student communities and condemn antisemitic conduct. Harvard failed to condemn Hamas in its initial response to the invasion and many schools “turned its back on” Jewish communities on campus, according to the report.

It criticized Harvard and the other universities for showing a deliberate “indifference” to antisemitic harassment while supporting other minority groups.

Third, the schools failed to meaningfully discipline pro-Palestinian demonstrators. The investigation concluded there was little to no discipline regarding encampments and building takeovers at schools including Northwestern, Berkeley, and Rutgers.

According to the report, Rutgers even punished Jewish students for revealing the antisemitism they experienced while it shoa wed “lax” handling of antisemitic misconduct.

Fourth, it said, university leaders were reluctant to participate in congressional oversight and disparaged lawmakers. The report found Harvard, Columbia, and Penn, including presidents and board chairs, condemned the committee’s actions. Their findings allege that official notes from a Dec. 10 meeting of Harvard’s Board of Overseers show former President Claudine Gay apparently referring to Stefanik as a “purveyor of hate” and “supporter of Proud Boys.”

Harvard is one of several schools listed in the investigation that has taken steps to update its policies and rules around campus use and discipline. The university’s guidance prohibits demonstrations and protests in study, instructional, or private areas.

“Antisemitism has no place on our campus, and across the university we have intensified our efforts to listen to, learn from, support, and uplift our Jewish community, affirming their vital place at Harvard,” Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton told ABC News.

Stefanik, a Harvard alum, said the universities included in the sweeping investigation are in for a reckoning for decades to come.

“This report clearly shows the moral bankruptcy of university leaders to take decisive action and even confirms personal attacks against me for pursuing their accountability,” Stefanik said in a statement to ABC News.

“Our once ‘elite’ higher education institutions conceded to hostile, antisemitic agitators and failed to condemn and properly discipline students and faculty that were guilty of antisemitic conduct violations,” she said.

Last spring, the antisemitism investigation by Foxx, the Education Committee and simultaneous investigations by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., prompted House Speaker Mike Johnson to take up the issue, making it a House-wide probe amid the pro-Palestinian demonstrations and campus takeovers.

Much of the information in the majority’s wide-reaching investigation has largely been released to the public through its high-profile hearings, transcribed interviews, and subpoenas.

Meanwhile, Democrats on the committee told ABC News that Republicans on the committee “aggressively” ignored other forms of discrimination on college campuses. “The only way you can effectively deal with antisemitism is to address all forms of hate and discrimination,” the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Bobby Scott, said.

Rep. Scott added that the committee has not held any hearings on Islamophobia, saying “Muslim students have been subject to hate speech and everything, discrimination, ra,cism etc.”