April 15, 2024
Columbia’s President Heads to Capitol Hill
Four months after a Congressional hearing that helped sink two of her Ivy League counterparts, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik is heading to Capitol Hill for a showdown with lawmakers on Wednesday.
Shafik originally had been asked to appear alongside three other college presidents as part of a Dec. 5 hearing on antisemitism. But she declined the invitation, citing a travel conflict. In her absence, Congress grilled Harvard University president Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth on antisemitism on college campuses, where tensions had exploded since Hamas attacked Israel Oct. 7, sparking a brutal retaliatory war in Gaza. Allegations of blatant antisemitism had emerged amid the demonstrations on many campuses, and the House Education and the Workforce Committee decided to investigate.
Shafik originally had been asked to appear alongside three other college presidents as part of a Dec. 5 hearing on antisemitism. But she declined the invitation, citing a travel conflict. In her absence, Congress grilled Harvard University president Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth on antisemitism on college campuses, where tensions had exploded since Hamas attacked Israel Oct. 7, sparking a brutal retaliatory war in Gaza. Allegations of blatant antisemitism had emerged amid the demonstrations on many campuses, and the House Education and the Workforce Committee decided to investigate.