Harvard leaders issued subpoenas
The House Education and the Workforce Committee escalated its fight with Harvard University by issuing subpoenas to produce documents, including minutes from its leadership board and endowment, as part of a probe into antisemitism at the school.
Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina, signed the orders Friday, accusing Harvard of failing to treat the inquiry with “appropriate seriousness.”
“Given Harvard’s vast resources and the urgency with which it should be addressing the scourge of antisemitism, the evidence suggests that the school is obstructing this investigation and is willing to tolerate the proliferation of antisemitism on its campus,” Foxx wrote in a letter accompanying the demands.
Subpoenas were issued to interim president Alan Garber, board of trustees chair Penny Pritzker, and the chief executive officer of the school’s US$51 billion endowment, Narv Narvekar. Foxx said Harvard has repeatedly failed to satisfy past requests despite deadline extensions and other accommodations. Responses to the subpoenas are due March 4.
In recent months, many campuses have been embroiled in protests and debates over the Israel-hamas war.
In December, the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania were summoned to a congressional hearing, where they sparked outrage over their legalistic answers to questions such as whether calling for the genocide of Jewish people would violate school policies. Days later, a House committee opened an investigation into antisemitism at the three schools. Within weeks, the presidents of Penn and Harvard resigned.
The House Ways and Means Committee is conducting an inquiry into whether failures to condemn antisemitism could affect the tax-exempt status of Harvard and three other universities.
Foxx had recently warned Harvard the committee could send a subpoena. In a statement earlier this week Harvard said it already has responded “extensively and in good faith” to numerous demands from lawmakers, submitting documents totalling more than 3,500 pages.
“While subpoenas were unwarranted, Harvard remains committed to co-operating with the Committee and will continue to provide additional materials, while protecting the legitimate privacy, safety and security concerns of our community,” Harvard spokesman Jonathan Swain said on Friday.
Foxx said 40 per cent of the pages Harvard produced to her committee were already publicly available.
The panel demanded Pritzker and Garber hand over 11 categories of documents, including reports of any antisemitic incidents, records on disciplinary actions, meeting minutes and more.