Wednesday, December 13, 2023
Democrat senator blasts 'failure' of university leaders to protect Jewish students, asks Biden admin to review
Democrat Sen. Jacky Rosen is urging Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to take a "comprehensive review" of university harassment policies amid rising antisemitism on college campuses and what she called a "failure" of leadership at those institutions to protect Jewish students.
Rosen, D-Nev., penned a letter obtained by Fox News on Wednesday to Cardona to share "significant concerns" on the matter, just days after university presidents testified on Capitol Hill.
"I write with significant concerns about rising antisemitism at institutions of higher education and the failure of college and university leadership to protect Jewish students from harassment and discrimination," Rosen wrote. "Jewish Americans across the country were horrified by last week's hearing in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, where three leading university presidents failed to unequivocally state that calling for the genocide of the Jewish people would inherently violate their schools' respective harassment policies or codes of conduct."
"In light of this disturbing testimony, and in order to protect students from antisemitic discrimination, I urge the Department of Education to undertake a comprehensive review of college and university harassment policies and codes of conduct to ensure that they comply with federal civil rights requirements for institutions of higher education," Rosen wrote.
Rosen, citing the Dec. 5 hearing, said lawmakers posed questions regarding campus antisemitism to presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
"When asked if 'calling for the genocide of Jews' would constitute bullying or harassment under Penn's code of conduct, then-president Liz Magill answered that it was a 'context-dependent decision' and that such a statement would be harassment if 'the speech turns into conduct,'" Rosen said, citing testimony from the university presidents. "The presidents of Harvard and MIT then gave similar, troubling answers to the same question."
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