Elise Stefanik

04/17/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/17/2024 13:37

Stefanik Statement On Columbia University's Failure To Combat Antisemitism Following The Inconsistent And Unacceptable Testimony From Their Campus Leadership

Washington, D.C.-Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a Senior Member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, released the following statement on the rampant antisemitism infecting Columbia University and higher education following the inconsistent testimony of the Columbia University leadership and their Board of Trustees.

"Today's hearing of Columbia University president and board members epitomizes the failed leadership on "elite" college campuses to combat antisemitism and protect Jewish students. From the university president's moral equivocation on antisemitism, to glaringly inconsistent testimony regarding disciplinary action and lack thereof taken against antisemitic students and pro-terrorist faculty, to astonishingly stating that there has been no "anti-Jewish" protests on campus only to then acknowledge that "F-- the Jews" & "Death to the Jews" is in-fact anti-Jewish when she was further pressed.

Interestingly, during a break, the witnesses were overheard discussing how well they thought their testimony was going for Columbia. This arrogance is eerily reminiscent to the previous three university presidents who believed walking out of the hearing that their testimony was acceptable. Columbia is in for a reckoning of accountability.

If it takes a member of Congress to force a university president to fire a pro-terrorist, antisemitic faculty chair, then Columbia University leadership is failing Jewish students and its academic mission. No amount of overlawyered, overprepped, and over-consulted testimony is going to cover up for failure to act."<_o3a_p>