The University Presidents of Harvard, U. Penn, and MIT testified today before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce about the antisemtism crisis on campuses after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
You can watch the Full Hearing here.
BIG TAKE AWAY –
THESE THREE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS ARE VERY UNIMPRESSIVE PEOPLE.
And I’m being generous.
The highlight of the hearing IMO was Elise Stefanik’s questioning on the genocidal chants by mobs of students rampaging through campuses: “Long Live The Intifada” “There is only one solution, Intifada, Revolution” “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free.” She asked the presidents if those chants on campuses violated the univerity’s own policies regulating campus speech. The obvious point is that having decided to regulate campus speech, the rules are not applied equally depending upon who the target is. Equivalent speech directed at ‘students of color’ never would be tolerated, but against Jews (or whites, I will add), no biggie.
You will recall she did a great job during Trump’s impeachment hearing (I forget which one).
She came prepared. Stefanik that is, not President Gay.
Some more highlights.
As the hearings were ongoing, but after I’d listened to over an hour, I appeard on Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox Business:
Transcript (auto-generated, may contain transcription errors)
Cavuto (00:00):Thank you. Aisha Husney on Capitol Hill. Wanna go to William Jacobson, the Cornell University law professor. Professor, what do you think of this and what is your perception of whether that is a rampant issue, antisemitism at your fine school and some of these others?WAJ (00:15):It’s been a festering problem now for two decades on campuses. It’s a result of many different things. But one of the things that it’s most prominently a result of is the racialization of education where everything is viewed through a racial lens. And coalitions against Israel are built around students of color, their term, and Jewish students are singled out and cast aside as white oppressors. So it’s, it’s a real problem.Cavuto (00:46):Alright. We appear to be having some, audio problems there. Professor, again, if you could still hear me, we’re having some problem with your tracking here, but I think what you’re saying it is a problem. I’m just wondering then whether the efforts to get to the bottom of it and address it on Capitol Hill are are going to help. What do you think?WAJ (01:04):I think shining a spotlight on it is very important. I don’t think it will change any behavior. These presidents seem completely either oblivious or not being honest with what’s going on on campuses for them to say that they welcome diverse viewpoints on campus, whereas various congressmen pointed out there are almost no conservative professors on campus. Let me tell you one other thing. There are almost no openly pro-Israel professors on campus because they don’t get hired and when they do speak out, they get subject to targeting. So campuses are not diverse, they’re extremely anti-Israel, they’re anti-conservative and in many regards they’re anti-American.Cavuto (01:44):Now, is it your sense then that the Hamas attacks in Israel and then Israel’s response brought all of this out, until then it was sort of beneath the surface, because it certainly is wide out in the over now.WAJ (01:59):I think it was beneath the surface as far as national attention. Those of us who live on campuses, those of us who’ve been covering what’s been happening on campuses, there have been shout downs of conservatives, there have been shout downs of pro-Israel speakers. There’s been physical intimidation by groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, including at Cornell. So this has been going on, it just didn’t get the national attention that it’s now received.Cavuto (02:25):Professor, keep us posted on this. Hopefully, you know, cooler, wiser, more fair heads prevail here to make sure everyone gets a fair break. And this type of behavior is no longer warranted or accepted anywhere near your fine campus.
And at the end of the day, on EWTN, the largest Catholic television network in the U.S. and reportedly the largest religious network in the world.
Transcript (auto-generated, may contain transcription errors)
Tracy Sabel (00:00):William Jacobson a Cornell University professor, great to be with you today. Talk to us about what you thought about the hearings and, and the main takeaways.WAJ (00:09):Well, I actually thought the three presidents were, frankly, fairly pathetic. They seemed to be either unaware of what’s happening at their campuses or unwilling to deal with it. Repeatedly throughout their testimony when they were questioned by various representatives, they would say, oh, we welcome all viewpoints, we welcome, we embrace everybody, we want to have this culture of acceptance on campus. But we all know that that’s not true. I’m on a campus, it’s not true. I’ve followed campuses for over 15 years, almost daily, and reported on them. So I really felt there was a disconnect there.Sabel (00:45):Yeah, and you know, it really is shocking some of the things that we’ve seen playing out on college campuses, also on your campus as well at Cornell. That being said, do you think it’s been enabled by university policy for years? And I know, you have said it’s kind of predictable.WAJ (01:05):Yeah, well, I’ve been predicting this for 15 years. Finally people are paying attention, not because of me, but because of events. I’ve been saying this racialization of everything, the balkanization of campuses under critical race theory, intersectionality, diversity, equity, and inclusion, there’s a lot of different names for it, but it forces students to view themselves through racial, ethnic, and other identity lenses rather than viewing themselves as individuals, each of whom is worthy in their own right to equal treatment under the law. They’re viewed as proxies for groups.[talkover]When you do that, you set students against each other.Sabel (01:50):One of the things that was talked about at the hearing today, the diversity of thought and talent on campus. What do you think can be done about that to kind of correct things? Should we hire more conservative faculty members?WAJ (02:07):I think the situation is so far gone with regard to diversity of viewpoint. There’s got to be outside pressure. The faculties are close to a hundred percent, at the elite institutions at least, like the three that were in Congress today, they’re almost a hundred percent not just not conservatives, they’re hostile to conservatives. They’re hostile to half the country’s voters. They are in feel insulated from any sort of public pressure. And I think that it’s unhealthy and it provides a monoculture on campuses that cannot reform itself. Something’s going to have to be done. With regard to public universities that can easily be done through budgets. Florida, I think, is on the right track, eliminating and defunding the DEI budgets, but even the federal government, maybe not under this administration, but another one should put financial pressure because they cannot reform internally.Sabel (03:04):We have about 20 seconds left or so, professor, but quickly, can you give us an overview of what the situation is like right now on your campus?WAJ (03:12):I think things have calmed down considering how horrible they were a month ago. You know, death threats against students, a student arrested by the FBI. Right now the anti-Israel students are pretty much run amok. They’ve taken over the president’s office. They’re trying to pressure the administration. So it’s not a healthy situation, but it’s one that the administration appears unable to deal with.
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