Administrators at Columbia University have received a demand for documents, joining other Ivy League institutions facing scrutiny from Congress for the failure to protect Jewish students following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) wrote to Columbia that the House Education and Workforce Committee she chairs has “grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of Columbia’s response to antisemitism on its campus.” She pointed out that the school’s “environment of pervasive antisemitism” goes back long before last fall, citing instances of “assaults, harassment and vandalism.”
Other schools already part of the House investigation include Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Foxx said last week that “Harvard’s responses have been grossly insufficient, and the limited and dilatory nature of its productions is obstructing the committee’s efforts.”
Columbia will have until Feb. 26 to provide the committee with related documents, including reports of anti-Jewish incidents since 2021 and the consequences that perpetrators faced. Foxx also seeks information about requests by student groups to protest and money received from foreign sources, such as Qatar, to do so.
“We have received the letter from chairwoman Foxx and will cooperate fully with any investigation,” a Columbia spokesperson said.
