Columbia’s president heads to Capitol Hill

4 months after a Congressional listening to that helped sink two of her Ivy League counterparts, Columbia College President Minouche Shafik is heading to Capitol Hill for a showdown with lawmakers on Wednesday.

The Dec. 5 listening to was broadly seen as a catastrophe for the three presidents, all of whom equivocated when requested about condemning hypothetical requires genocide at their establishments. Magill stepped down on Dec. 9 beneath strain from lawmakers and highly effective donors. Homosexual quickly adopted, resigning on Jan. 2 amid swirling plagiarism allegations that compounded her broadly criticized efficiency earlier than Congress. Solely Kornbluth at MIT has hung onto her job.

Most Widespread Tales

Most Widespread

Whereas the three presidents confronted off towards Congress, Shafik was talking on the United Nations Local weather Change Convention in Dubai.

Now she is strolling into the identical scenario, which some observers have described as a political lure set by Congressional Republicans important not solely of campus leaders’ response to antisemitism but additionally of upper training usually.

Why Columbia?

GOP officers have had Columbia of their crosshairs nearly for the reason that begin of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“A number of the worst circumstances of antisemitic assaults, harassment, and vandalism on campus have occurred at Columbia College,” North Carolina Consultant Virginia Foxx, the Republican chairwoman of the Home Schooling and Workforce Committee stated in a March assertion. “Because of the extreme and pervasive nature of those circumstances, and the Columbia administration’s failure to implement its personal insurance policies to guard Jewish college students, the Committee should hear from Columbia’s management in particular person to find out how the college is addressing antisemitism on its campus.”

In a Feb. 12 letter to Columbia, Foxx raised considerations about plenty of alleged incidents, accusing the college of fostering a decades-long “surroundings of pervasive antisemitism.” Foxx cited considerations that emerged within the aftermath of the Oct. 7 assaults by Hamas, pointing particularly to incidents by which college students have been allegedly focused for being Israeli, Jewish, or each, and subjected to antisemitic slurs.

Requested why the committee focused Columbia, Harvard, Penn and MIT—ultra-wealthy, extremely selective establishments that command important media consideration however educate solely a tiny fraction of school college students within the U.S.—an official stated considerations of antisemitism are excessive on these campuses.

“Chairwoman Foxx reached out to universities which were on the heart of the rise in antisemitic protests,” committee spokesperson Nick Barley informed Inside Greater Ed by e-mail.

Past the listening to, the committee has additionally demanded a trove of paperwork, together with “all reviews of antisemitic acts or incidents and associated paperwork and communications since January 1, 2021,” in addition to particulars of how Columbia has responded to allegations of hate crimes, in response to Foxx’s letter.

Columbia officers have stated little publicly going into the listening to. A college spokesperson declined to share a complicated copy of Shafik’s written testimony to Congress, pointing as an alternative to her previous statements condemning antisemitism.

“Columbia is dedicated to combating antisemitism and we welcome the chance to debate our work to guard and assist Jewish college students and maintain our group protected,” the spokesperson stated by e-mail, declining to reply further questions from Inside Greater Ed.

Strolling a Tightrope

Shafik was born in Egypt, however political and financial turmoil compelled her household to maneuver to the U.S. throughout her childhood. Educated as an economist, she labored in international improvement, holding posts on the Worldwide Financial Fund and the Financial institution of England. Most just lately, she served as president of the London Faculty of Economics and Political Science, from 2017 till final yr.

Now she’s going to face Congress a mere eight months into her presidency at Columbia.

Like Shafik, the presidents who appeared on the December listening to have been all ladies and all comparatively new to their positions. Kornbluth, who started at MIT in January 2023, was the longest-serving of the presidents summoned to Capitol Hill. Whereas the earlier listening to featured solely the presidents, Shafik shall be flanked by Columbia Board of Trustees co-chairs Claire Shipman and David Greenwald.

Columbia declined to share any particulars about how Shafik has ready for the listening to. However outdoors specialists famous that she heads to Capitol Hill with the advantage of hindsight, having seen her friends flounder and be vilified.

“I feel lots of people have been stunned that three presidents of such outstanding universities couldn’t clearly articulate an moral place about hate speech on their campuses and antisemitism specifically,” stated Karl Schonberg, a professor of presidency at St. Lawrence College, who has argued that Kornbluth, Homosexual and Magill failed to talk with ethical readability.

The narrative transcended greater training, he added. To his level, the disastrous listening to was even panned on Saturday Night time Dwell, with actors poking enjoyable on the presidents’ evasive solutions.

“It felt very defensive, it felt like they weren’t clear about what their very own insurance policies have been, they weren’t prepared to make robust statements,” Schonberg stated. “My tackle it was it seemed like that they had spent numerous time speaking with their legal professionals and being informed what to not say.”

Penn trustee Scott Bok, who stepped down following Magill’s resignation, primarily admitted as a lot in a assertion saying that the president was “over ready and over lawyered given the hostile discussion board and excessive stakes.” Because of this, she “offered a legalistic reply to an ethical query,” he added.

Rick Hess, director of training coverage research for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative suppose tank, stated Shafik can be smart to not repeat the errors of her friends. Hess, who has argued the three presidents didn’t domesticate conservative allies, burdened the “significance of working either side of the aisle” and constructing relationships with committee Republicans—one thing he steered Columbia must be doing earlier than the listening to.

Shafik must also come prepared to debate particular incidents prone to be raised, Hess stated, pointing to a latest Congressional roundtable on antisemitism by which a Columbia pupil alleged she and different Jewish college students had been subjected to discrimination on the college. That incident, he steered, will doubtless come up and Congress will need to understand how Columbia officers have dealt with it and whether or not they have met with college students experiencing antisemitism.

However he believes Shafik additionally has the advantage of lowered expectations for this listening to.

“The large benefit going into this, due to the practice wreck in December, is the bar is about actually low. Should you present up and appear to be fairly responsive and never making an attempt to throw snark on the Republican members, you will have an opportunity to look actually good as compared,” Hess stated.

Each Hess and Schonberg imagine that Shafik wants to return armed with coverage specifics, able to reply questions from important Republicans by providing examples of Columbia’s response to alleged incidents of antisemitism and of its efforts to guard each college students and free speech.

For the very best final result, Schonberg stated, Shafik wants to supply a protection of educational freedom and free speech on school campuses whereas illustrating how Columbia prevents hate and different speech from suppressing the strong change of concepts on campus, which he argues is the position of upper training.

What she completely should not do is repeat the missteps made within the final listening to, he stated.

Hess believes that Shafik is strolling a tightrope. Whereas she has to keep away from angering Republicans and sparking public outrage, he stated, Shafik additionally has to appease “leftists on campus” and her friends throughout greater training by not crumbling earlier than the committee.

“I feel, for the business, the worst case situation is that you simply give the Republicans trigger to double down and argue that even with a 4 months heads up, greater training management is incapable of seeing and addressing the issues,” Hess stated. “However if you wish to have a profession in greater ed, having the upper ed group resolve you’re a sellout is an enormous hazard in itself.”