The Education and the Workforce Committee has threatened to subpoena Columbia University if the Ivy League school does not hand over documents pertaining to ongoing antisemitism investigations on campus.
Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) issued a statement on Aug. 1 demanding that the university submit documents to the coalition of lawmakers. Foxx repudiated the university for dodging requests to turn over information on the investigation into antisemitism on their campus.
“Despite repeated requests, Columbia has failed to produce priority items requested by the Committee. These priority items, which are critical to the investigation, include communications by priority custodians of documents, including multiple members of Columbia’s Board of Trustees; records of Board of Trustees meetings; and requested information on disciplinary cases. In many cases, these items were requested months ago. Columbia’s continued failure to produce these priority items is unacceptable, and if this is not promptly rectified, the Committee is prepared to compel their production,” Fox said in a statement.
The committee is requesting that Columbia turn in “All documents and communications since October 7, 2023, referring and relating to antisemitism.” In addition, the committee demands the school submit documents pertaining to, “the Gaza Solidarity Encampment involving key Columbia officials including the University’s President, Provost, Chief Operating Officer, and Members of the Board of Trustees.”
The committee also wants schedules of high-ranking Columbia officials, including President Minouche Shafik from April 17 to May 2, 2024. Foxx also requests all “minutes, notes, summaries, and recordings” from all Columbia Board of Trustee meetings following Oct. 7, 2023—the date that the Hamas terrorist group attacked Israel. In addition, Columbia would have to hand over “a list and description of all student and faculty disciplinary/conduct cases”
Foxx says that Columbia initially compiled with requests to turn in documents pertaining to antisemitic campus incidents. However, the university failed to submit text or electronic messages for Board of Trustees meetings.
“Columbia began producing documents related to the encampment on May 6, but failed to produce text messages or electronic messages or contemporaneous or informal Board of Trustees notes and summaries. On June 12, the Committee requested that Columbia produce a set of priority items that Columbia had as yet failed to produce,” Foxx said.
The congresswoman says that the university has only presented part of the materials requested by the committee. The university also did not hand over all the requested documents from the required timeframe.
“Columbia’s July 19 production was unsatisfactory. Columbia appears to have produced text messages from only two of eight administrators and two of the approximately ten trustees identified as priority custodians by the Committee on June 12. This production did not cover the period since April 17, which the Committee had specifically identified as a priority,”
The Committee stresses that the documents are necessary to “understand Columbia’s response to antisemitism and inform the Committee’s consideration of potential legislation concerning antisemitism at postsecondary institutions.”
Columbia University has found itself implicated in a firestorm of controversy surrounding campus antisemitism. The university has become a figurative ground zero for pro-Palestine campus activism, with students setting up encampments and disrupting academic proceedings to demand action in the name of Palestine. Many Jewish students have reported feeling threatened on campus by chants of “bomb Tel Aviv!” and “Globalize the Intifada!” Moreover, many Jewish alumni and donors have vowed to distance themselves from the university over a purported sluggishness to combat antisemitism by students and faculty.
