Few students at Harvard University who protested the war in Israel last year were disciplined, according to a report released Thursday by the House Education and Workforce Committee.
Of the 68 students who were referred for disciplinary action after participating in an encampment, none were suspended, 52 are in good standing and 15 are on probation, according to the committee. Prior to the encampment at the end of the spring semester, 12 students were referred for disciplinary action connected to conduct at protests and alleged antisemitic incidents, which included occupying a campus building. Those students were “admonished,” per the report, but didn’t face any formal disciplinary consequences.
Over the past year, the committee has homed in on and criticized how colleges respond to reports of antisemitic incidents and discipline students. Thursday’s report follows an August data release related to discipline at Columbia University, which showed that most students who protested in the spring remain in good standing.
Thursday’s report shows that “Harvard failed,” according to Representative Virginia Foxx, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the committee.
“These administrators failed their Jewish students and faculty, they failed to make it clear that antisemitism will not be tolerated,” Foxx said in a statement. “The only thing administrators accomplished is appeasing radical students who have almost certainly returned to campus emboldened and ready to repeat the spring semester’s chaos. Harvard must change course immediately.”
Foxx suggested that by failing to punish the students, Harvard violated federal law that requires federally funded institutions to protect students from discrimination based on race, national origin and shared ancestry, which includes antisemitism and Islamophobia.
