Columbia President Is Next to Be Grilled About Antisemitism by Congress
Four months after an explosive congressional hearing on antisemitism precipitated the resignations of two Ivy League presidents, another university president is about to step to the hot seat.
On Wednesday, Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, will testify about antisemitism before the same House committee that grilled the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When asked a question about whether calling for the genocide of Jews would break their universities’ rules, the presidents responded with lawyerly answers that sparked a spiraling backlash.
The December hearing was a political showcase for Elise Stefanik, a New York lawmaker who is the No. 4 Republican in the House and whose questions elicited the most damaging testimony. Afterward, Ms. Stefanik counted the resignations of the president of the University of Pennsylvania, M. Elizabeth Magill, and Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard, as personal wins.
“I will always deliver results,” Ms. Stefanik, a Harvard alumna and a prospective vice-presidential pick for Donald Trump, said after Dr. Gay’s resignation.
Dr. Gay, who also faced plagiarism allegations, said she had resigned, in part, to “deny demagogues the opportunity to further weaponize my presidency.”
