EXCLUSIVE — House Republican leaders are threatening to withhold federal funds from colleges and universities if they do not crack down on student-led protests calling for a ceasefire in Israel.
“House Republicans are demanding higher education take more deliberate action to ensure Jewish students and faculty are protected,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), House GOP chairwoman, told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “With students returning to campus, it has never been more critical that NO taxpayer dollars go to colleges or universities that have enabled antisemitism to take root.”
The statement comes as protests have reignited on college campuses across the country as students return for the 2024-25 school year. At least two arrests were made outside Columbia University on Tuesday, which prompted the New York Police Department to put up barricades and establish identity checks at the campus entrances.
Stefanik has been a leading voice on Capitol Hill calling on colleges to crack down on violence stemming from pro-Palestinian protests, which has since resulted in the resignation of presidents from three top U.S. universities over their failure to condemn anti-Semitism. The latest resignation occurred just last month when Columbia President Minouche Shafik announced she would step down amid pressure due to protests that emerged on campus in mid-April.
Shafik resigned after serving just over a year as the university’s president. She took office in July 2023. Just months into her presidency, she was invited to a House hearing on antisemitism in December but declined to attend.
Two other former Ivy League presidents, Harvard University President Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill, resigned not long after that hearing, during which Stefanik pressed them on whether calling for genocide “constitute[s] bullying or harassment” on college campuses. The presidents declined to say whether it violated codes of conduct, which prompted widespread calls for their resignation.
Since then, Republicans have continued pressuring colleges to tamp down pro-Palestinian activity on campuses, especially as fall classes begin this week.
“It is the first day of class at Columbia University, and the pro-terrorist, antisemitic mob is already back,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said of the arrests Tuesday. “The Biden-Harris Administration should condemn this mob immediately.”
Columbia has been forced to make changes to campus security and education over the last several months after a group of Jewish students sued the school and accused administration officials of perpetuating a dangerous environment on campus. School officials later agreed to provide a “safe passage liaison” for those concerned with protest activity.
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The school ran into more problems during the summer when Columbia removed three administrators from its ranks over private text conversations disparaging certain speakers during a discussion about Jewish life. The messages, Shafik said, exemplified “ancient antisemitic tropes.”
Since then, a spokesperson for the university said it has bolstered its protest guidelines and has implemented new training for incoming students on antisemitism and Islamophobia, according to the Associated Press.
