New Blow To Columbia University as Congress Issues Searing Subpoena in Ongoing Antisemitism Investigation

Columbia University suffers a new blow as Congress subpoenas six administrators and board members — including interim president Katrina Armstrong and the co-chairs of the university’s Board of Trustees — as part of its investigation into the school’s handling of antisemitism on campus. The order, issued on Wednesday by the Chairwoman of the House’s Education and Workforce Committee, Virginia Foxx, will require the university to hand over hoards of documents, including all communications between key Columbia officials which reference antisemitism since the Hamas massacre on October 7 and all of the notes and recordings from meetings between the Board of Trustees relating to antisemitism since April 17, 2024. The university will also have to supply information on all alleged antisemitic incidents since the beginning of the war. Ms. Foxx had threatened to issue a subpoena earlier in August after she accused the school of failing to provide the committee with required materials. “Columbia should be a partner in our efforts to ensure Jewish students have a safe learning environment on its campus, but instead, university administrators have slow-rolled the investigation, repeatedly failing to turn over necessary documents,” Ms. Foxx wrote in a press release announcing the subpoenas. She added that the information already obtained by the committee “points to a continued pattern of negligence towards antisemitism and a refusal to stand up to the radical students and faculty responsible for it.” “The goal of this investigation has always been to protect Jewish students and faculty, and if compulsory measures are necessary to obtain the documents the Committee requires, so be it,” she said. The subpoena comes just a week after the former university president, Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, stepped down from her post after facing criticism, from all sides, for her response to the anti-Israel encampments last spring. Ms. Armstrong — who sat as the head of the school’s Medical Center — was soon named the interim president. The anti-Israel protests at Columbia were among the most disruptive in the nation and came to a dramatic climax when a mob of students and outside agitators overtook a university building, Hamilton Hall.The controversies continued into the summer as several Columbia deans were caught sending disparaging texts about Jewish students describing their experiences with antisemitism on campus. Weeks after being placed on indefinite leave, three of the deans resigned. As part of its investigation, the House committee was involved in reviewing the messages and released them to the public. As recently as this week, the committee released a report alleging that the university walked back on its previously stated disciplinary plan and had not expelled the majority of the students arrested during the Hamilton Hall occupation. As of August, only three students were placed on temporary suspensions. The rest are considered in “good standing” with the university. Ms. Foxx described the administration’s failure to hold the arrested students accountable as “disgraceful and unacceptable.” “By allowing its own disciplinary process to be thwarted by radical students and faculty, Columbia has waved the white flag in surrender while offering up a get-out-of-jail-free card to those who participated in these unlawful actions,” she said in a statement on Monday. The committee is in the midst of a similar investigation into Harvard University.

New Blow To Columbia University as Congress Issues Searing Subpoena in Ongoing Antisemitism Investigation

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