US Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, accused Harvard University of “malfeasance” in choosing which documents it submitted in response to a Congressional subpoena this week, the Harvard Crimson reported.
“I don’t know if its arrogance, ineptness, or indifference,” Foxx said on Tuesday. “Harvard has absolutely failed to comply in good faith with the Committee’s subpoena for information about antisemitism on its campus.”
Harvard submitted about 1,500 documents to Congress on Monday as part of an investigation into the rise in antisemitic incidents on American college campuses, including Harvard. According to Foxx, many of the documents were duplicates of documents the school had previously submitted rather than the new documents Congress had demanded.
“Heavy redactions throughout the production made several documents useless,” Foxx said, adding that “the Committee is weighing an appropriate response to Harvard’s malfeasance.”
Harvard University has come under fire over its handling of antisemitism on campus, which has been on the rise since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas.
Shortly after the war began, a coalition of 34 Harvard student organizations released a statement in which they blamed Israel for Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel.
Later, then-Harvard President Claudine Gay came under fire after she, along with MIT President Sally Kornbluth and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, testified before a congressional hearing on the issue of antisemitism on college campuses.
All three university presidents gave similar answers to Rep. Elise Stefanik in which they failed to unequivocally condemn antisemitism or even calls for genocide against Jews.
Gay later resigned as President of Harvard amid the backlash over her congressional testimony on antisemitism. She subsequently claimed she was the target of a sustained campaign of lies and personal insults.
Last month, the House Education and the Workforce Committee subpoenaed Harvard University for alleged obstruction of its antisemitism investigation. The Education and Workforce Committee asked the university for a list of documents related the probe and gave it two weeks to produce the records.
Harvard was given a deadline of March 4 at 5:00 p.m. to submit key materials related to all antisemitic acts or incidents since Jan. 1, 2021, according to the subpoena.
Last week, Israeli singer Ishay Ribo performed in Boston for Jewish students from Harvard University, following the antisemitism they have experienced recently.
Outside, an anti-Israel demonstration took place, protesting Ribo's performance due to the Israel-Hamas war. Earlier, protesters had called to prevent the performance entirely.
Both performances took place despite the threats, though the amplification company was switched, since the first company decided to boycott Ribo following the calls to prevent the performances from taking place.