Posted on 12/13/23
| News Source: The Hill
The House approved a resolution Wednesday condemning testimony from a trio of elite university presidents at a hearing last week, during which the administrators declined to say that calls for the genocide of Jewish individuals would violate their schools’ policies.
The chamber cleared the resolution in a 303-126-3 vote, formally rebuking the comments from Harvard University President Claudine Gay, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President Sally Kornbluth and the now former president of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) Liz Magill, which have caused a stir across the country — and sparked Magill’s ouster.
Wednesday’s vote fractured Democrats, with some opposing the resolution — despite denouncing the testimony — because they felt it was an overreach for Congress to get involved with hiring in higher education. Eighty-four Democrats supported the legislation, while 125 opposed it and three voted “present.”
During a hearing last week before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, when asked if a call to genocide Jewish individuals would be considered harassment on their campuses, the presidents of the three top-tier schools said their answers would depend on the context of the situation.
The resolution — led by House GOP conference Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), who questioned the presidents on calls for genocide — said the three administrators “were evasive and dismissive” in their responses, “failing to simply condemn such action.”
“This is not a partisan issue but a question of moral clarity,” Stefanik said in a statement when the resolution was proposed. “Which is why our colleagues from across the aisle have come together with us to introduce a resolution condemning antisemitism on university campuses as well as the morally bankrupt testimonies of the University Presidents from Harvard, Penn, and MIT during last week’s House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing.”