‘DISGRACEFUL’: Rep. Virginia Foxx condemns Columbia for failing to discipline anti-Israel students who caused campus chaos
The House committee released a report detailing several instances in which students participated in disruptive conduct, only to end up in ‘good standing’ with the university.
Chairwoman Virginia Foxx condemned the ‘failure of Columbia’s invertebrate administration to hold accountable students who violate university rules and break the law,’ calling it ‘disgraceful and unacceptable.’
A Republican congresswoman condemned Columbia University’s apparent failure to discipline disruptive anti-Israel students on campus, calling it “disgraceful.”
A press release published Monday by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), stated that Columbia failed “to discipline students who engaged in extreme conduct violations, including breaking into, and occupying, Hamilton Hall and participating in antisemitic encampments that made the University a hostile environment for Jewish students.”
Foxx stated in the release that the “failure of Columbia’s invertebrate administration to hold accountable students who violate university rules and break the law is disgraceful and unacceptable.”
[RELATED: Columbia University silent on return of student who made comments about ‘murdering Zionists’]
The committee released info on eight incidents that took place from April to June in which anti-Israel students protested against the Jewish state and disrupted life on campus, including by invading and occupying the Hamilton Hall building on campus.
The lawmakers also pointed to an occasion on May 5 in which protestors posted “unauthorized posters of members of the Columbia Board of Trustees on various University buildings.”
The committee’s report also listed disciplinary actions taken by Columbia, as well as the current standing of the protesting students with the university.
The committee revealed that the “vast majority” of students–18 out of 22–who participated in the occupation of Hamilton Hall “remain in good standing,” despite Columbia’s previous vows to expel them. The remaining four face interim suspensions or probation.
The report also mentions that 35 students were suspended for refusing orders to disperse their anti-Israel camp, yet the vast majority of them saw disciplinary charges against them dropped and are now also counted as being in “good standing” with Columbia.
[RELATED: Columbia University’s president resigns after months of anti-Semitic turmoil on campus]
“By allowing its own disciplinary process to be thwarted by radical students and faculty, Columbia has waved the white flag in surrender while offering up a get-out-of-jail-free card to those who participated in these unlawful actions,” Foxx continued.
“Breaking into campus buildings or creating antisemitic hostile environments like the encampment should never be given a single degree of latitude—the university’s willingness to do just that is reprehensible,” she concluded.
Campus Reform has contacted Columbia University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
