On March 21, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), Chair of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter to Cornell President Martha Pollack demanding details of Cornell’s efforts to fight anti-semetism.
Smith wrote, “The focus of the Committee’s inquiry and questions is to understand what universities like yours are doing, if anything, to change course drastically and address what has gone unaddressed for years,”
In his letter, the Missouri lawmaker claimed:
This pervasive culture has created a hostile environment for Jews on campus. Public statements, slaps on the wrist, and symbolic gestures, while good and proper, are not sufficient to reverse what is clearly a systemic issue. Antisemitism not only exists on campus, but also thrives and puts Jewish students at risk. The moment calls for serious institutional change.
Details of the Request
The letter stated that the staff of the House Ways and Means Committee watched a livestream of the March 6 “Die-in” demonstration organized by the “Coalition for Mutual Liberation” or CML The letter described CML:
Apparently, this organization is not a registered student group but is instead made up of other registered student groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine, the Black Students Union, the Arab Students Association, and the Young Democratic Socialists of America, among others. The structure of CML appears designed to avoid university discipline. This effort should not flummox school administrators.
The letter then asked six detailed questions, with a response due by April 4. The questions ask for a list of disciplinary actions taken since October 7 against students, faculty and staff. The letter specifically asks, “Why do you think antisemitism has grown on Cornell’s campus over the last decade?” What actions can be taken to improve the campus climate regarding anti-semetism, and What statements, if any, has Cornell made regarding anti-semetism?
The letter asked for a list of all donations received by Cornell from foreign governments. (This may include large annual donations associated with the medical school in Qatar.)
Other Investigations
The House Ways and Means Committee is also conducting anti-semetism investigations of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and MIT. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has also been investigating elite schools regarding free expression, and the university presidents of Harvard and UPenn resigned following their testimony before that committee.
Meanwhile, the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education has announced a series of investigations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 concerning “ancestry related” discrimination (e.g., anti-semetism or Islamophobia.) Cornell is listed as one of the first schools being subject to such an investigation.
How Cornell Got Here
University president Martha Pollack was not invited to testify alongside the presidents of Harvard, UPenn and MIT on December 5 before the Education and the Workforce Committee regarding “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism.”
However, Cornell was a focus of a Ways and Means Committee hearing held on November 15 entitled, “From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing“. That hearing included testimony from Adam Lehman, President & CEO, Hillel International, and Talia Dror, a Cornell student and Vice President of Finance of Cornellians for Israel.
Following the hearing, the Committee sent a set of detailed questions to Cornell, Harvard, UPenn and MIT on January 10 with responses due on January 24. That letter accused Cornell of selective enforcement:
Free speech should be protected – even speech we disdain. But your universities have long practiced the protection of preferred speech rather than truly protecting all speech. In so doing, you appear to have lost the ability to recognize when speech crosses the line into conduct, especially on topics that do not fit into your preferred categories.
Cornell’s January 24 response included a copy of the Interim Expressive Activity Policy that Cornell issued on that same day. Presumably, the March 21 letter is the Ways and Means Committee’s response to what Cornell submitted on January 24.
