GOP-led panel queries MIT over antisemitism
A congressional committee investigating antisemitism on college campuses requested documents from MIT on Friday, making it the fourth school drawn into the probe.
“We have grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of MIT’s response to antisemitism on its campus,” said a 12-page letter from US Representative Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican and chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
The letter, addressed to Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth and MIT Corporation chair Mark Gorenberg, said the university’s “failure to protect Jewish students” was central to the committee’s investigation.
An MIT spokesperson on Monday said the university had received the letter and was “examining it.”
“MIT is committed to providing a response to the committee’s questions,” the spokesperson said. “We don’t have any further comment at this time.”
The committee’s letter came a day after a new federal lawsuit claimed MIT has tolerated antisemitism and discrimination on campus, creating a climate of fear for Jewish and Israeli students since the Hamas-led attack last October and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in US District Court in Bosformer ton by StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice, a nonprofit focused on fighting antisemitism internationally, on behalf of students at MIT. The suit demands that MIT expel students and fire professors and staff members who engage in or permit discriminatory conduct.
Foxx’s letter listed several incidents, including class disruptions, building blockades, harassment and assault of Jewish students, and chants endorsing violence. Foxx accused MIT of failing to enforce suspension of a pro-Palestinian campus group that was punished for violating school rules.
The committee Foxx leads held the Dec. 5 congressional hearing during which Kornbluth and the then-presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania were questioned for hours about campus antisemitism and progressive ideologies some conservatives believe have contributed to anti-Israel sentiment.
Foxx, in her letter to MIT, states that during the hearing Kornbluth “made numerous statements that further called into question the Institute’s willingness to address antisemitism seriously, including failing to state unequivocally that calling for the genocide of Jews would violate MIT’s code of conduct and community standards.”
The tensions that ensued, including allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia on campuses, and intense debates about the limits of political speech, led to the resignations of Claudine Gay, Harvard’s president who also dealt with plagiarism allegations, and Liz Magill, head of the University of Pennsylvania.
The turmoil also sparked a federal lawsuit by 10 graduates alleging that Harvard’s failure “to end antisemitism on its campus” has led to “the devaluation of their Harvard degrees,” The Boston Globe reported.
And a similar lawsuit was filed by students at Harvard in January.
The committee’s letter requested documents relating to MIT’s responses to antisemitic incidents, disciplinary procedures, internal communications, meeting minutes, and foreign donations the school has received.
The committee previously requested similar documents from Harvard, Columbia, and UPenn. Last month, Foxx issued subpoenas to Harvard demanding the documents.
On March 4, Harvard made its eleventh submission of documents since January to the committee for a total of nearly 4,900 pages of information, according to a Harvard spokesperson.
The subpoenaed documents included any internal reports about antisemitic incidents, minutes of board meetings, disciplinary records, and internal communications about a controversial statement signed by Harvard student groups the day of the Hamas-led attack on Israel.