Congressional Republicans are demanding that Columbia University’s leaders better serve their Jewish students by handing out harsher punishments to students and faculty who engage in antisemitic attacks and harassment. This comes even as anti-Israel demonstrators take over part of the Columbia campus, raising echoes of the 1968 occupation of Hamilton Hall to protest the war in Vietnam.

“Students and faculty must feel safe. They must be safe and they must feel safe on their campuses,” the chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, said at a press conference with Jewish Columbia students before the hearing began. 

“This is all about the role of university in terms of focusing on allowing the students to get a good education, and they’re not going to be able to do that if they’re distracted for fear of their lives or for fear of being accosted,” she said.

The hearing on Wednesday featured testimony from Columbia’s president, Nemat  “Minouche” Shafik, and a former law school dean, as well as the co-chairwoman and co-chairman of the school’s board of trustees. 

At the opening of the inquiry, Ms. Foxx played a video showing a series of antisemitic events on Columbia’s campus. One showed individuals on Columbia’s campus chanting, “There is no safe place. Death to the Zionist state,” and, “Five, six, seven, eight. Israel is a terrorist state.”

Another video showed a man on the Columbia quad yelling, “F— Israel” and “F— the Jews.” A young woman in a hijab can be seen in another video yelling into a microphone, “We will turn your life into a nightmare.” Another captures a rally on campus where a crowd is chanting, “Intifada, intifada, long live the intifada.”

At the same time Ms. Shafik sat before the committee, her own students took similar actions as those shown in the video. Hundreds of Columbia students staged a sit-in on the campus quad, holding signs that said “lesbians of liberation” and “Columbia funds apartheid,” among other things. 

The protesters in a release described themselves as an “encampment in solidarity with the people of Gaza” situated “at the heart of Columbia’s campus,” and noted that the “mass action” was organized by a group called Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

The group says it opposes Columbia’s “continued financial investment in corporations that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine,” and added that it would “remain” until the university “divests all finances, including the endowment,” from companies doing business with Israel.

According to the student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, there were more than 60 tents set up on the Morningside Heights campus as part of the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”

Ms. Shafik opened her testimony by telling the story of her family’s immigration to America from Egypt when she was a young girl. Living in the deep South, she said, gave her a special appreciation for the harm of identity-based discrimination. 

The university president said that “Columbia strives to be a community free of discrimination and hate in all its forms, and we condemn the antisemitism that is so pervasive today.”

“Antisemitism has no place on our campus,” she added. 

Ms. Shafik pointed to a number of steps she has taken since October 7 to try to tamp down on antisemitic events, including suspending an anti-Israel group, Students for Justice in Palestine. 

Ms. Shafik said there is a “hierarchy of punishments” in place for those who violate university rules. If you attend an unsanctioned group protest, you are “immediately” sent a warning letter, Ms. Shafik said. “Further” action will be taken if other events occur, she added. 

At many points, Ms. Shafik was unable to answer questions about why she has allowed antisemitic students and faculty to remain at the university under her leadership. 

Congressman Tim Walberg asked her about Joesph Massad, a tenured professor who leads the school of arts and sciences’ academic review board and who praised Hamas for its “awesome” attack on October 7. 

Ms. Shafik said that Mr. Massad had been “spoken to” and removed from his position as head of the academic review board. 

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik — the star of the last hearing that featured university presidents — then asked Ms. Shafik a follow-up question about Mr. Massad. Ms. Stefanik noted that Mr. Massad was listed online as still being the head of that review board. 

When Ms. Stefanik asked if Mr. Massad was, in fact, leading that board, Ms. Shafik could not answer, even though she previously said he had been removed. Ms. Stefanik then asked if she would personally oversee his removal from that position. Ms. Shafik refused to make that commitment. 

The co-chairwoman and co-chairman of the Columbia board of trustees, Claire Shipman and David Greenwald, both said they would not approve Mr. Massad for tenure today given his statements about Hamas. 

The dean emeritus of the law school, David Schizer, also testified before the committee. A 26-year veteran of the university faculty who spent 10 years as the law school’s dean, Mr. Schizer said the behavior by his students was “simply unacceptable.”

“Being a Zionist should not disqualify someone from a dance group or a theater production,” Mr. Schizer said, referring to some of his students who told him that they had been barred from participating in events because of their Jewish identity. “Free speech is essential,” but is not absolute, he warned. 

Committee members seemed concerned that Ms. Shafik was over-coached by Columbia’s legal staff because she evaded many questions. When Congresswoman Lisa McClain asked if a chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is antisemitic, Ms. Shafik danced around her answer, saying that it was “upsetting” to hear. 

When Ms. McClain asked Mr. Schizer if he thought the chant was antisemitic, he said yes. Ms. Shafik then said that she agrees with him. 

Ms. Foxx closed the hearing by saying that Columbia must do better by its Jewish students in order to maintain its credibility as an institution. She noted that some of what Ms. Shafik said — including the claims that Mr. Massad had been removed from his post — were misleading. 

“We’re deeply disturbed by what we’re seeing at Columbia and by many of the things we’ve heard in today’s hearing. It’s important to set the record straight on a few things,” Ms. Foxx said. 

“President Shafik, there have been 15 suspensions related to antisemitic incidents. That’s misleading,” the chairwoman said. “In fact, between October 7 and March 23, after months of antisemitic incidents, only three students were given interim suspensions for antisemitic conduct. All three were lifted or dropped to probation, including a student who repeatedly harassed students, screaming: ‘F— the Jews.’”

Ms. Foxx says she is “prepared” to bring Columbia’s leadership back to Congress if she doesn’t see “tangible” progress toward making Jewish students and faculty feel safe. 

“If Columbia takes this seriously, that’s a remedy worth pursuing. While some changes have begun on campus, there is still a significant amount of work to be done. We will be looking for answers,” she concluded. 

The 1968 protests at Columbia proved a major embarrassment for the university, which initially wavered on the decision of whether to remove the protesting students from the building they had occupied. As the protests were allowed to continue, they grew to take on racial dimensions along with opposition to the war in Vietnam. 

The university eventually called in police to clear the occupied building, and the violent outcome proved to be a black eye for the university that tarnished its reputation for decades.