The House Education and Workforce Committee has issued multiple subpoenas to Harvard University officials for failing to provide documents for the committee’s antisemitism investigation.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Republican and chairwoman of the committee, said the documents already received from the Ivy League school are “severely insufficient” and that she had warned them a subpoena would be coming.
“It is my hope that these subpoenas serve as a wakeup call to Harvard that Congress will not tolerate antisemitic hate in its classrooms or on campus,” Ms. Foxx said in a statement.
Subpoenas were sent to Harvard’s interim president, Alan Gerber; Penny Pritzker, a senior fellow with Harvard Corporation, and N.P. Narvekar, CEO of the Harvard Management Company. The subpoenas order the officials to produce a series of documents that detail what actions the school took to ensure Jewish students’ safety on campus. The deadline for providing documents is 5 p.m. March 4.
Some of the documents include meeting minutes from Harvard’s top boards and any records and communications since January 2021 that relate to antisemitism.
A Harvard spokesman said in a statement that the subpoenas were “unwarranted,” but that the school “remains committed to cooperating with the committee and will continue to provide additional materials, while protecting the legitimate privacy, safety and security concerns of our community.”
This is the first time the committee has issued a subpoena to a university.
President Claudine Gay stepped down on Jan. 2 after creating a firestorm with her testimony to Congress a month earlier on whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violated Harvard’s code of conduct. She said any response by the school depended on the “context” of the alleged bullying and harassment, comments that were viewed by many as condoning antisemitism.
“Given Harvard’s vast resources and the urgency with which it should be addressing the scourge of antisemitism, the evidence suggests that the school is obstructing this investigation and is willing to tolerate the proliferation of antisemitism on its campus,” Ms. Foxx said.
The Republican lawmaker issued a warning to the university last week, saying the officials would receive subpoenas if the requested documents weren’t submitted by Feb. 14.
The university did produce some documents by the deadline, but Ms. Foxx said more than 40% of them had already been made public, and that “quality — not quantity — is the committee’s concern.”
“Harvard’s continued failure to satisfy the committee’s requests is unacceptable,” she said. “I will not tolerate delay and defiance of our investigation while Harvard’s Jewish students continue to endure the firestorm of antisemitism that has engulfed its campus. If Harvard is truly committed to combating antisemitism, it has had every opportunity to demonstrate its commitment with actions, not words.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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