Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, sent letters on Thursday to the three university presidents who testified before the committee in May to follow up on their progress addressing antisemitism on their college campuses.
On May 7, the presidents of DePaul University, California Polytechnic State University and Haverford College appeared before the committee for the hearing—which ran for over three hours—on “college presidents to answer for mishandling of antisemitic, violent protests.
“The committee must understand not only whether there was a hostile environment on DePaul’s campus towards Jewish students but also whether the college adequately responded to incidents that created or contributed to the environment,” read the letter sent to DePaul.
All three letters contained the same passage, but were specifically tailored to each school, highlighting specific instances of campus antisemitism at the respective campuses.
Walberg requested specific information based on the answers given by each university president and required that the universities not alter the documents in any way when submitting them to the committee.
Walberg’s letter to Haverford called the president’s “lack of transparency about how, if at all, Haverford has responded” to campus antisemitism “very disappointing.”
“Despite repeated requests, you failed to share any data, even in the aggregate, on faculty and student disciplinary actions taken in response to antisemitic incidents on your campus,” read the letter. The letter also asked for proof that the university investigated a professor who openly praised the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
At the hearing, Cal Poly stated they would establish a new presidential task force to combat antisemitism. Walberg’s letter demanded to know the action plans of the task force, how members were appointed and whether the task force had actually been implemented.
On June 4, anti-Israel activists stormed Cal Poly’s financial aid and student accounts office and spray-painted anti-Israel graffiti.
“The scourge of antisemitism has taken root far beyond the country’s best-known ivory towers, and it’s our responsibility as a committee to unearth and address antisemitism at these schools, too, especially as antisemitism is at a historic high in the United States,” Walberg said at the May 7 hearing.
