The House Antisemitism Staff Report is a Scare Tactic not a Solution for Student Success

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives issued a Staff Report on Antisemitism with what they called “alarming findings.”  The report targets its criticism at both Amanda Fuchs Miller“prominent American universities” and what it says was the “failure of our federal government departments and agencies.”  There is no question that colleges and universities did not all do the right thing after the October 7^th terrorism attack on Israel to protect their campuses from antisemitism and to keep all their students, including Jewish students, safe. These were not easy times and colleges and universities could have done better. And our students deserve that.

That said, a politicized attack on higher education is not the answer. College presidents and leaders, for the most part, want to do the right thing. In the aftermath of October 7^th, colleges worked to take steps to protect their students and keep them safe and, most importantly, keep them learning and set them up for success.  The approaches were not perfect.  They may not have been communicated in the right way.  But college leaders worked with students, faculty, administrators, and their broader communities to foster safe and inclusive campuses and are continuing to try to find the best ways to do so.

However, what the newly released House Antisemitism Staff Report demonstrates is that is not the path on which they are being led. It also demonstrates that the lines of attack on higher education are not just about antisemitism. The report is a continuation of the attacks on race-conscious admissions programs that were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions and an attempt to undermine diversity efforts on our college campuses (and elsewhere) because of a disagreement in policy and popular political messaging – not because it is what is best for students.  

This is in strong contrast to what we saw from our federal agencies during the period post October 7^th. The Biden Administration undertook, with dedication and persistence, the hard work to ensure students and campus communities were safe. The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights initiated a record number of Title VI investigations into colleges and universities and made that information more transparent by sharing publicly which schools had complaints filed against them.  The Department of Education also issued guidance reminding schools not only of their legal obligations under the Clery Act to report crimes based on religion, national origin and ethnicity, but also letting them know they can go further and report crimes based on subcategories to make it more transparent where antisemitic activities were occurring on campuses. 

Taking away federal funding – which is there to support student success – or even the threat of taking away federal funding immediately is not fulfilling the goal of our civil rights laws. The investigative process must be seen through and the goal must be to enforce our civil rights laws by fully investigating the facts, coming to a resolution, and changing the behavior of the schools and its leaders where needed.  That is the way to best serve students and reduce the scourge of antisemitism our nation is facing.

The staff report and the House Education and Workforce’s unprecedented investigation – for example, the subpoenas to Harvard University as part of their investigation of antisemitism at the university was the first subpoena to a college or university in the Committee’s 157-year history - is a distraction and a burden to higher education and cannot be a substitute for the real work that needs to be done to improve college access, affordability and success.  The attempt to place blame using partisan politics must end.  Let’s focus on real reforms that need to be made.  For example, Congress has a chance in the FY25 appropriations bill to finally adequately fund the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education and overcome the largest barrier to the federal government’s work in this area.

The House Antisemitism Staff Report is a roadmap for what can be expected over the next couple of years under a Trump Administration and Republican leadership in Congress.  The recommendations it includes – from withholding federal funding to increasing the number of directed investigations (those without a complaint filed from a student or a member of the school’s community) – targets institutions in a way that is not helpful or productive.  The report is not designed to really fix the antisemitism problems that do remain on our campuses and deserve a real solution.  It is to embarrass elite institutions by calling out a few examples that, while definitely do need to be addressed, don’t always tell the full picture.