Here's what all 8 Ivy League presidents have said about campus antisemitism
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- The presidents of Harvard and Penn testified before Congress on Tuesday about campus antisemitism.
- They faced criticism for their answers about whether calls for genocide violate school policies.
- Ivy League presidents are grappling with free speech and student safety amid the Middle East conflict.
As protests regarding the Israel-Hamas war spark rising tensions on college campuses, a number of Jewish college students are planning to sue several elite universities, including Cornell and Harvard, over what they describe as inaction to address "pervasive anti-Jewish bigotry on campus."
The presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania faced criticism for what many called evasive answers during a congressional hearing about campus antisemitism before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Tuesday. The backlash led Penn's president to resign on Saturday.
Meet all eight Ivy League university presidents — and see how they've addressed campus tensions around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Nick Dentamaro/Brown University
Paxson has been president of Brown University since 2012. A professor of economics and public policy, she previously served as the dean of Princeton University's School of International and Public Affairs. She also chairs the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
After Brown undergraduates voted for a referendum calling on the university to divest from "companies complicit in human rights abuses in Palestine" in 2019, Paxson responded in an open letter saying she would not honor the referendum.
"Brown's endowment is not a political instrument to be used to express views on complex social and political issues, especially those over which thoughtful and intelligent people vehemently disagree," she wrote.
On November 25, three Palestinian college students, one of whom is a junior at Brown, were shot in Burlington, Vermont, in a suspected hate crime. Paxson spoke at a campus vigil after the shooting, saying that Brown should be "a place where everyone is safe and supported to be their full and best selves" and that "every student, faculty, and staff member should be able to proudly wear a Star of David or don a keffiyeh on the Brown campus, or to cover their head with a hijab or yarmulke."
Allison Michael Orenstein/Columbia Magazine
Shafik, an economist, became president of Columbia University in July and is the first woman in the role. She previously held titles such as the vice president of World Bank, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and the deputy governor of Bank of England.
After several antisemitic incidents on campus in October, including a swastika drawn in Columbia's International Affairs Building and the assault of an Israeli student outside of Butler Library, Shafik announced the creation of a Task Force on Antisemitism in collaboration with Barnard College President Laura Rosenbury to "enhance support for all members of the Columbia, Barnard, and Teachers College communities, particularly our Jewish students," the Columbia Spectator reported on November 1.
Jason Koski/Cornell University
Pollack has been president of Cornell University since 2017. A computer-science professor specializing in artificial intelligence, she previously served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs of the University of Michigan.
In November, a Cornell University student was arrested and charged with posting death threats after he allegedly threatened to shoot Jewish students on campus in a series of online posts. In response, Pollack met with students at Cornell's Center for Jewish Living as well as New York Governor Kathy Hochul. She also released a statement condemning campus antisemitism and all forms of bigotry.
"We will not tolerate antisemitism at Cornell; indeed we will not tolerate hatred of any form, including racism or Islamophobia," the statement read.
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Beilock's tenure as the first female president of Dartmouth College began in July. She previously served as the president of Barnard College. A cognitive scientist, her research specializes in performance anxiety and "choking" under pressure, particularly as it relates to women and girls in STEM.
In a letter following the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, Beilock encouraged students to attend two public forums on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict led by professors from the college's Jewish studies and Middle Eastern studies departments.
"As always, our goal is to lift up the free and open exchange of ideas and underscore that threats and intimidation are not part of productive dialogue, they are in direct opposition," Beilock wrote.
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Gay was one of three university presidents who testified before the the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Tuesday about combatting campus antisemitism.
In a tense exchange, Rep. Elise M. Stefanik asked the university presidents: "At Harvard, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment?"
Gay's response, "It can be, depending on the context," garnered widespread criticism.
She clarified her remarks in a statement on Wednesday, saying that some have "confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students" and reiterating that "calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account."
As the backlash continued, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce announced that it would open an investigation into allegations of antisemitism at Harvard, and Harvard Divinity School visiting scholar Rabbi David Wolpe resigned from the university's antisemitism advisory group.
Gay then apologized in an interview with the Harvard Crimson on Thursday, saying that "words matter."
"I got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures," Gay told the Crimson. "What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged."
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Magill has been president of the University of Pennsylvania since 2022. Before arriving at Penn, she served as executive vice president and provost at the University of Virginia and dean of Stanford Law School.
In her congressional testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Tuesday, Magill answered similarly to Harvard's president when asked by Stefanik if "calling for the genocide of Jews" constitutes "bullying or harassment."
"If it is directed and severe and pervasive, it is harassment," Magill said.
When pressed by Stefanik again, Magill said, "It is a context-dependent decision."
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro called her comments "shameful and unacceptable," the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Facing calls for her resignation from the university's Wharton Board of Advisors, Magill clarified her statements in a video released on Wednesday.
"I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate," she said. "It's evil, plain and simple."
On Saturday, Magill resigned as president of Penn.
Princeton University, Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy
Eisgruber has served as president of Princeton University since 2013. A constitutional-law expert, he has been a faculty member at the university since 2001.
Eisgruber moderated a November 28 discussion between dean of Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs Amaney Jamal, who is Palestinian-American, and dean of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs Keren Yarhi-Milo, who is Israeli-American, Princeton Alumni Weekly reported. The two faculty members published a New York Times op-ed calling on campuses to "protect free speech and equally advocate mutually respectful dialogue."
During the event, Eisgruber responded to a student question about engaging in pro-Palestinian activism.
"I certainly agree with our deans and with the student questioner that free speech has to embrace the strong expression of opinions on all sides of a controversial issue, and it's really important to elevate that conversation," Eisgruber said. "But I think the right way to elevate it is by further conversations like this one rather than the suppression of speech."
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Salovey has served as president of Yale University since 2013. A psychology professor who specializes in emotional intelligence, he previously worked as provost of the university.
When asked by the Yale Daily News for his view on whether calls for the genocide of Jewish people violate Yale's discrimination and harassment policies, Salovey said he first wanted to watch Tuesday's congressional testimony.
"One thing that I can say off the bat is if a student went into the Slifka Center" — Yale's Jewish student center — "shouting genocide, I would call the police," Salovey said. "If a student with an anti-Palestinian sign went up to a student who they believed was Palestinian and was in their face with that sign and harassing them, I would call the police."
In a follow-up statement on Thursday, Salovey said he would consider such statements "harassing, intimidating, and discriminatory," and that people who shared them would be held accountable.
"In my opinion, if an individual stood on our campus and urged the committing of mass murder of Jews, it would have no intellectual or academic value, and is frankly hateful and worthless," Salovey wrote in a statement to the Yale Daily News. "The very idea of it is something I find outrageous, vile, and abhorrent. Such an act, in my view, would be harassing, intimidating, and discriminatory, so I would certainly expect that person to be held accountable under our policies prohibiting such conduct."
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Tuesday, December 12, 2023
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