House Education and Labor Committee holds hearing on antisemitism at colleges

The House Education and Labor Committee convened a hearing on campus antisemitism featuring presidents of Haverford College, DePaul University and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, along with Georgetown law professor David Cole.

Committee members opened the session with statements describing incidents at Haverford, DePaul and Cal Poly and asking the witnesses about disciplinary responses, campus safety, and how their institutions balance free expression with civil-rights obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Witnesses included Wendy Raymond, president of Haverford College; Robert Manuel, president of DePaul University; David Cole, the George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy at Georgetown University Law Center; and Jeffrey Armstrong, president of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

In opening remarks, members and witnesses described three recurring themes: reports by Jewish students of harassment and hostile rhetoric on some campuses; differing interpretations of when offensive or threatening speech rises to a civil-rights violation under Title VI; and concerns that the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has reduced capacity to investigate complaints after regional-office and staffing cuts. David Cole emphasized that Title VI addresses discriminatory denial of equal access to education and that most offensive or inflammatory speech is constitutionally protected unless it is targeted, severe, pervasive and objectively denies access to educational opportunities.

Committee members pressed the three university presidents on concrete outcomes. DePaul's president described a multiweek encampment last spring that the university said produced numerous complaints, property damage and, after coordinated action with Chicago police, resulted in group suspensions and two arrests. DePaul reported eight student groups investigated, two groups temporarily suspended and two arrests in connection with the encampment, and said it revised student conduct rules and campus security practices afterward.

Haverford's president acknowledged harms to Jewish students and said the college had updated policies and established an ad hoc free-expression committee, but repeatedly declined to provide aggregate counts of suspensions or expulsions, saying the college does not publicize those numbers. Cal Poly's president described training, a new antisemitism task force, mandatory orientation and employee training, and partnerships with Hillel, Chabad and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Members of the committee — Democrats and Republicans alike — repeatedly said they sought stronger campus accountability, though they offered differing prescriptions. Some Republican members pressed university leaders to adopt stricter campus enforcement and punitive consequences; Democratic members and witnesses cautioned that federal enforcement must follow fact-based investigations and that OCR capacity remains essential to adjudicating Title VI claims fairly.

The hearing record will remain open for 14 days for written statements and supplemental material, the chairman said.

The hearing did not produce formal committee actions or votes; it was a fact-finding and oversight session.